AIDS TO REFLECTION, 



This makes, that whatsoever here befalls, 
You in the region of yourself remain 
Neighb'ring on heaven ; and that no foreign land. 

Daniel. 



AIDS TO REFLECTION 



BY 



SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 



EDITED BY 



The Rev. DERWENT COLERIDGE, M.A. 



WARD, LOCK, AND CO. 

LONDON: WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. 
NEW YORK : BOND STREET. 






LONDON ! 
BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WIIITEFRIARS. 



By iiiic iwui^a 

APR 18 1929 

j»y and Navy Oi*t» 



/ 



/ 



/// 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The present Edition of the " Aids to Reflection" 
is a corrected reprint from the last,* with several 
additional Notes by the Author, interesting in 
themselves, and valuable in their connection with 
the text. 

It has been deemed of paramount importance to 
reduce the size and cost of this Edition, so as to 
bring the work itself within the reach of as large a 
number, and as various a description, of readers as 
possible. All extraneous matter has consequently 
been withdrawn. 

The preliminary Essay by Dr. Marsh, able and 
judicious as it is, is no longer so needful, nor 
indeed quite so applicable, as when it first appeared. 
The Editor cannot, however, set it aside without 

* The references narked Ed. are to be assigned to the editor of the 
first posthumous edition, Henry Nelson Coleridge, whose critical care 
and judgment every succeeding editor is bound to acknowledge. 



/yy 



vi ADVERTISEMENT. 

paying a tribute of respect to the memory of the 
writer, while he expresses his obligations both to 
him and to other learned and enlightened Americans, 
by whom the name of Coleridge is held in honour, 
and who have variously contributed to spread the 
knowledge and facilitate the reception of his 
religious philosophy. 

The "Essay on Rationalism," by the late Mrs. 
Henry Nelson Coleridge, will, it is hoped, be re- 
produced as an independent treatise with the other 
literary remains of the lamented writer. 

The observations on Instinct by Mr. Green, 
being referred to in the text, are retained. "With 
this exception, the Author is now left to speak 
for himself. 

There is some advantage in this. The "Aids to 
Reflection" has been long before the world. The 
subject matter has passed into the public mind 
through various channels and with divers modifica- 
tions. A text-book, without comment, may be 
useful to those who wish to correct or to verify 
from the original the impressions which they 
have received at second hand. 

And as regards the younger student, to whom 
these " Aids" are more particularly, though by no 
means exclusively addressed, — the work has a 



ADVERTISEMENT. vil 

method of its own, arid it may be well that the 
reader should find his way through it strictly in 
the manner prescribed. It is a Jiand-hooJc, capable 
indeed of indefinite expansion and elucidation, but 
complete in itself; chargeable with no obscurity, 
relatively to the subject, and presenting no difficulty 
separable from the act of reflection. A certain 
process has to be passed through. It is not 
needful, and perhaps it is not altogether desirable, 
that the attention should be directed, or the judg- 
ment anticipated, by any prestatement, still less by 
any defence or explanation of the results. 



DERWEXT COLERIDGE. 



St. Mark's College, Chelsea. 
January, 1SS4. 



ADVERTISEMENT 

TO THE FOURTH AND FIFTH EDITIONS. 



This corrected Edition of the Aids to Reflection is 
commended to Christian readers, in the hope and the 
trnst that the power which the book has already exer- 
cised over hundreds, it may, by God's furtherance, here- 
after exercise over thousands. No age, since Christianity 
had a name, has more pointedly needed the mental 
discipline taught in this work than that in which we 
now live ; when, in the Author's own words, all the 
great ideas or verities of religion seem in danger of 
being condensed into idols, or evaporated into meta- 
phors. Between the encroachments, on the one hand, 
of those who so magnify means that they practically 
impeach the supremacy of the ends which those means 
were meant to subserve ; and of those, on the other 
hand, who, engrossed in the contemplation of the great 
Redemptive Act, rashly disregard or depreciate the 
appointed ordinances of grace ; — between those who, 
confounding the sensuous Understanding, varying in 
every individual, with the universal Reason, the image 
of God, the same in all men, inculcate a so-called faith, 
having no demonstrated harmony with the attributes 
of God, or the essential laws of humanity, and being 
sometimes inconsistent with both ; and those again 
who requiring a logical proof of that which, though 



ADVERTISEMENT. [ x 

not contradicting, does in its very kind, transcend, our 
reason, virtually deny the existence of true faith 
altogether ; — between these almost equal enemies of 
the truth, Coleridge, — in all his works, but pre- 
eminently in this — has kindled an inextinguishable 
beacon of warning and of guidance. In so doing, he 
has taken his stand on the sure word of Scripture, 
and is supported by the authority of almost every one 
of our great divines, before the prevalence of that 
system of philosophy (Locke's), which no consistent 
reasoner can possibly reconcile with the undoubted 
meaning of the Articles and Formularies of the English 
Church : — 

In causague valet, causamque juvantibus armis. 
25tk April, 1S39. 



This is the fifth Edition of the Aids to Eeflection 
published in England ; and there have been three in 
the United States of America. It deserves note, less ' 
with reference to the Author himself, than to the 
moral and religious history of this age. Since 1824, 
when the Work first appeared, the tone has changed, 
and the senseless imputation of obscurity, and vague- 
ness, and Germanism — so general then — is now but 
faintly heard, and in the mouths of sciolists alone. 
Those who buy this Volume, buy seriously, and because 
they stand in need. It is found to be clear, and 
particular, and practical by minds seeking light to 
enlighten ; and now that the evil side of modern 
Germanism in religion, — its Pantheistic spirit — is 
better understood, it will be seen that here is contained 
its most striking confutation by the side of the firmest 



x ADVERTISEMENT. 

assertion of the Evangelical truth. But the Aids to 
Beflection did not at first suit' all the views of High 
Churchmen, nor all the views of Low Churchmen ; and 
it will not suit them now. This is an antagonism, the 
issue whereof cannot yet be known. 

Meantime, the cause of religious philosophy has 
suffered a great loss in America, by the recent death 
of Dr. Marsh, who, if longer life and better health had 
been granted him, might have done much. But there 
are others — fellow-countrymen and pupils of his — upon 
whom his mantle has fallen. May they prosper ! 

k. n. a 

20*ft OctCOcr. 1S42. 



THE 

AUTHOR'S ADDRESS TO THE READER 



Fellow-Christian ! the wish to be admired as a fine 
writer held a very subordinate place in my thought a 
and feelings in the composition of this Volume. Let 
then its comparative merits and demerits, in respect of 
style and stimulancy, possess a proportional weight, and 
no more, in determining your judgment for or against 
its contents. Read it through : then compare the state 
of your mind with the state in which your mind was 
when you first opened the book. Has it led you to 
reflect ? Has it supplied or suggested fresh subjects 
for reflection ? Has it given you any new information ? 
Has it removed any obstacle to a lively conviction of 
your responsibility as a moral agent ? Has it solved 
any difficulties, which had impeded your faith as a 
Christian ? Lastly, has it increased your power of 
thinking connectedly — especially on the scheme and 
purpose of the Redemption by Christ ? If it have 
done none of these things, condemn it aloud as worth- 
less : and strive to compensate for your own loss of 
time, by preventing others from wasting theirs. But 
if your conscience dictates an affirmative answer to all 
or any of the preceding questions, declare this too 
*„loud, and endeavour to extend my utility. 



1 



Out*? toLvtm r*os iavrr.v I'xa.yovcot,, zoti (ruvY.Qooiaru.svYi "^vx^ x 

MAKINUS. 



Omnis divlnce atque humance eruditionis elementa tria, Nosse, 
Vclle, Posse; quorum principium u/ium Mens; cujus oculus Ratio ; 
Cid lumen * * prcibct Deus. 

vico. 



Naturam hominis hanc Deus ipse voluit, ut duarum rerum 
cupidus et appetens esset, religionis ct sapicrdke. Sed homines idee 
falluntur, quod, aut religionem suscipiunt omissa sapieniia ; aui 
sapiential soli student omissa religion* ; cum altcrum sine altcrc 
esse non poseii vermn. 

LACTAjmiJP. 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



An Author has three points to settle : to what sort 
his work belongs, for what description of readers it is 
intended, and the specific end or object, which it is to 
answer. There is indeed a preliminary question re- 
specting the end which the writer himself has in view, 
whether the number of purchasers, or the benefit of 
the readers. But this may be safely passed by ; since 
where the book itself or the known principles of the 
writer do not supersede the question, there will seldom 
be sufficient strength of character for good or for evil 
to afford much chance of its being either distinctly put 
or fairly answered. 

I shall proceed, therefore, to state, as briefly as 
possible, the intentions of the present Volume in 
reference to the three first-mentioned points, namel} 1 , 
What ? For whom ? For what 1 

I. What ] The answer is contained in the title- 
page. It belongs to the class of didactic works. 
Consequently, those who neither wish instruction for 
themselves, nor assistance in instructing others, have 
no interest in its contents. 

.Sii sus, sis Divas : sum caWta, ct non tibi spiro. 

II. For whom ? Generally, for as many in all classes 
as wish for aid in disciplining their minds to habits of 



XIV THE AUTHOES PBEFACK. 

reflection ; for all, who desirous of building up a manly 
character in the light of distinct consciousness, are 
content to study the principles of moral architecture 
on the several grounds of prudence, morality, and 
religion. And lastly, for all who feel an interest in 
the position which I have undertaken to defend, this, 
namely, that the Christian Faith is the perfection of 
human intelligence, — an interest sufficiently strong to 
insure a patient attention to the arguments brought in 
its support. 

But if I am to mention any particular class or 
description of readers, who were prominent in my 
thought during the composition of the volume, my 
reply must be ; that it was especially designed for 
the studious young at the close of their education or 
on their first entrance into the duties of manhood and 
the rights of self-government. And of these, again, in 
thought and wish I destined the work (the latter and 
larger portion, at least) yet more particularly to 
students intended for the ministry ; first, as in duty 
bound, to the members of our Universities : secondly, 
(but only in respect of this mental precedency second) 
to all alike of whatever name, who have dedicated 
their future lives to the cultivation of their race, as 
pastors, preachers, missionaries, or instructors of youth. 

III. For what 1 The worth of an author is esti- 
mated by the ends, the attainment of which he pro- 
posed to himself by the particular work ; while the 
value of the work depends on its fitness, as the 
means. The objects of the present volume are the 
following, arranged in the order of their comparative 
importance. 

1. To direct the reader's attention to the value of 
the science of words, their use and abuse, and the 
incalculable advantages attached to the habit of using 



THE AUTHORS PREFACE. sv 

them appropriately, and with a distinct knowledge of 
their primary, derivative, and metaphorical senses. 
And in furtherance of this object I have neglected no 
occasion of enforcing the maxim, that to expose a 
sophism and to detect the equivocal or double meaning 
of a word is, in the great majority of cases, one and the 
same thing. Home Tooke entitled his celebrated 
work, v E7rea TTTepoevra, winged words : or language, not 
only the vehicle of thought, but the wheels. With my 
convictions and views, for eTrea I should substitute 
\6yoi, that is, words select and determinate, and for 
TTTepGevTa tyovTes, that is, living words. The wheels of 
the intellect I admit them to be : but such as Ezekiel 
beheld in the visions of God as he sate among the 
captives by the river of Ghebar. Whithersoever the 
Spirit was to go, the wheels went, and thither was their 
Spirit to go : for the Spirit of the living creature was in 
the wheels also. 

2. To establish the distinct characters of prudence 
morality, and religion : and to impress the conviction, 
that though the second requires the first, and the third 
contains and supposes both the former ; yet still moral 
goodness is other and more than prudence on the 
principle of expediency ; and religion more and higher 
than morality. For this distinction the better Schools 
even of Pagan Philosophy contended. 

3. To substantiate and set forth at large the mo- 
mentous distinction between reason and understanding. 
Whatever is achievable by the understanding for the 
purposes of worldly interest, private or public, has in 
the present age been pursued with an activity and a 
success beyond all former experience, and to an extent 
which equally demands my admiration and excites my 
wonder. But likewise it is, and long has been, my 
conviction,, that in no age since the first dawning of 



xv i THE AUTHORS PEEFACE 

science and philosophy in this island have the truths, 
interests, and studies which especially belong to the 
reason, contemplative or practical, sunk into such uttei 
neglect, not to say contempt, as during the last century. 
It is therefore one main object of this volume to 
establish the position, that whoever transfers to the 
understanding the primacy due to the reason, loses the 
one and spoils the other. 

4. To exhibit a full and consistent scheme of the 
Christian Dispensation, and more largely of all the 
peculiar doctrines of the Christian Faith ; and to 
answer all the objections to the same, which do not 
originate in a corrupt will rather than an erring judg- 
ment ; and to do this in a manner intelligible for all 
who, possessing the ordinary advantages of education, 
do in good earnest desire to form their religious creed 
in the light of their own convictions, and to have a 
reason for the faith which they profess. There are 
indeed mysteries, in evidence of which no reasons can 
be brought. But it has been my endeavour to show, 
that the true solution of this problem is, that these 
mysteries are reason, reason in its highest form of self- 
affirmation. 

Such are the special objects of these Aids to [Re- 
flection. Concerning the general character of the 
work, let me be permitted to add the few following 
sentences. St. Augustine, in one of his Sermons, dis- 
coursing on a high point of theology, tells his auditors 
— Sic accipite, ut mereamini intelligere. Fides enim debet 
prcecedere intellectum, \it sit intellectus fidei proemium. 
Now without a certain portion of gratuitous and (as it 
were) experimentative faith in the writer, a reader 
will scarcely give that degree of continued attention, 
without which no didactic work worth reading can be 
read to any wise or profitable purpose. In this sense, 



THE AUTHORS PREFACE xv ii 

therefore, and to this extent, every author, who is com- 
petent to the office he has undertaken, may without 
arrogance repeat St. Augustine's words in his own 
right, and advance a similar claim on similar grounds. 
But I venture no further than to intimate the sentiment 
at a humble distance, by avowing my belief that he, 
who seeks instruction in the following pages, will not 
fail to find entertainment likewise ; but that whoever 
seeks entertainment only will find neither. 

Eeader ! — You have been bred in a land abounding 
with men, able in arts, learning, and knowledges 
manifold, this man in one, this in another, few in 
man} r , none in all. But there is one art, of which every 
man should be master, the art of reflection. If you are 
not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at 
all 1 In like manner, there is one knowledge, which it 
is every man's interest and duty to acquire, namely, 
self-knowledge ; or to what end was man alone, of all 
animals, endued by the Creator with the faculty of 
serf-consciousness ? Truly said the Pagan moralist, 

e ccelo descendlt, TmuQi triavroy. 

But you are likewise born in a Christian land : and 
Revelation has provided for you new subjects for- 
reflection, and new treasures of knowledge, never to 
be unlocked by him who remains self-ignorant. Self- 
knowledge is the key to this casket ; and by reflection 
alone can it be obtained. Reflect on your own thoughts, 
actions, circumstances, and — which will be of especial 
aid to you in forming a habit of reflection, — accustom 
yourself to reflect on the words you use hear, or read> 
their birth, derivation, and history. For if words are 
not things, they are living powers, by which the things 
of most importance to mankind are actuated combined 



xviii THE AUTHORS PREFACE. 

and humanised. Finally, by reflection you may draw 
from the fleeting facts of your worldly trade, art, or 
profession, a science permanent as your immortal soul ; 
and make even these subsidiary and preparative to the 
reception of spiritual truth, " doing as the dyers do, 
who having first dipt their silks in colours of less 
value, then give them the last tincture of crimson ia 
grain." 



CONTENTS. - 



Page 
ADVERTISEMENT .V 

„ TO THE FOURTH AND EIFTH EDITIONS • Ylii 

AUTHOR'S ADDRESS TO THE READER ' . xi 

„ PREFACE . . . . ~ . . . . xiii 

AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS . . . . 1 

OX SENSIBILITY . . . ... . . 25 

PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS 30 

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS . . . . 39 

ELEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY ... 99 

APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION . . . . 108 

APHORISMS ON THAT WHICH 13 INDEED SPIRITUAL 

RELIGION. . ' . . . . .114 

ON THE DIFFERENCE IN KIND OF REASON AND THE 

UNDERSTANDING .... .167 

ON INSTINCT IN CONNECTION " WITH THE UNDER- 
STANDING . I9i 

ON ORIGINAL SIN 205 



SX CONTENTS, 

Pa?e 
AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ON REDEMPTION 274 

ON BAPTISM 298 

CONCLUSION 321 

APPENDIX. 

A. SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ON REASON AND THE 

UNDERSTANDING 344 

P. ON INSTINCT; BY J. H. GREEN . . , ,315 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 



APHORISM I. 

In philosophy equally as in poetry, it is the highest 
and most useful prerogative of genius to produce 
the strongest impressions of novelty, while it rescues 
admitted truths from the neglect caused by the very 
circumstance of their universal admission. Extremes 
meet. Truths, of all others the most awful and in- 
teresting, are too often considered as so true, that 
they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in 
the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most 
despised and exploded errors 

APHORISM II. 

There is one sure way of giving freshness and im- 
portance to the most common-place maxims — that of 
reflecting on them in direct reference to our own 
state and conduct, to our own past and future being. 

APHORISM III. 
To restore a common-place truth to its first 

B 



Q AIDS TO BEFLECTJON, 

uncommon lustre, you need only translate it into 
action But to do this, you must have reflected on 
its truth. 

APHORISM IV. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

It is the advice of the wise man, " Dwell at home," 
or, with yourself; and though there are very few that 
do this, yet it is surprising that the greatest part of 
mankind cannot be prevailed upon, at least to visit 
themselves sometimes ; but, according to the saying 
of the wise Solomon, The eyes of the fool are in the 
ends of the earth. 

A reflecting mind, says an ancient writer, is the 
spring and source of every good thing. " Omnis boni 
prlncipium intellectus cogitabundus." It is at once 
the disgrace and the misery of men, that they live 
without forethought. Suppose yourself fronting a 
inirror. Now what the objects behind you are to 
their images at the same apparent distance before you, 
such is reflection to fore-thought. As a man without 
fore-thought scarcely deserves the name of a man, so 
fore-thought without reflection is but a metaphorical 
phrase for the instinct of a beast. 

APHORISM V. 

As a fruit-tree is more valuable than any one of its 
fruits singly, or even than all its fruits of a single 
season, so the noblest object of reflection is the mind 
itself, by which we reflect. 

And as the blossoms, the green and the ripe fruit 
of an orange-tree are more beautiful to behold when 
on the tree and seen as one with it, than the same 
growth detached and seen successively, after their 
importation into another country and different clime : 



ENTBODUCTOBY APHORISMS. 3 

so it is wiili the manifold objects of reflection, when 
they are considered principally in reference to the 
reflective power, and as part and parcel of the same. 
Xo object, of whatever value our passions may repre- 
sent it, but becomes foreign to us as soon as it is 
altogether unconnected with our intellectual, moral, 
and spiritual life. To be ours, it must be referred to 
the mind either as motive, or consequence, or 
symptom. 

APHORISM ft 

LEIGHTON. 

He who teaches men the principles and precepts of 
spiritual wisdom, before their minds are called off 
from foreign objects, and turned inward upon them- 
selves, might as well write his instructions, as the 
Sibyl wrote her prophecies, on the loose leaves of 
trees, and commit them to the mercy of the incon- 
stant winds. 

APHORISM VII. 

In order to learn, we must attend: in order to 
profit by what we have learnt, we must think — that 
is, reflect. He only thinks who reflects.* 

APHORISM VIII. 

LEIGHT02? AST) COLERIDGE. 

It is a matter of great difficulty, and requires no 
ordinary skill and address, to fix the attention of 

* The indisposition, nay, the angry aversion to think, 
even in persons who are most willing to attend, and on the 
subjects to which they are giving studious attention, as 
political economy, Biblical theology, classical antiquities, 
and the like, — is the fact that forces itself on my notice 
afresh, every time I enter into the society of persons in the 

b2 



4 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

men on the world within them, to induce them to 
study the processes and superintend the works which 
they are the nisei ves carrying on in their own mindr, ; 
in short, to awaken in them both the faculty of 
thought* and the inclination to exercise it. For, 
alas ! the largest part of mankind are nowhere 
greater strangers than at home. 

APHORISM IX. 

Life is the one universal soul, which, by virtue of 
the enlivening Breath and the informing Word, all 
organised bodies have in common, each after its 
kind. This, therefore, all animals possess, and man 
as an animal. But, in addition to this, God trans- 
fused into man a higher gift, and specially im- 

higher ranks. To assign a feeling and a determination of 
will, as a satisfactory reason for embracing or rejecting this 
or that opinion or belief, is of ordinary occurrence, and 
sure to obtain the sympathy and the suffrages of the com- 
pany. And yet to me this seems little less irrational than to 
apply the nose to a picture, and to decide on its genuineness 
by the sense of smell. 

* Distinction between Thought and Attention. — By 
Thought is here meant the voluntary reproduction in our 
minds of those states of consciousness, to which, as to his 
best and most authentic documents, the teacher of moral or 
religious truth refers us. In attention, we keep the mind 
passive : in thought we rouse it into activity. In the 
former, we submit to an impression — we keep the mind 
steady, in order to receive the stamp. In the latter, we 
seek to imitate the artist, while we ourselves make a copy or 
duplicate of his work. "VVe may learn arithmetic or the 
elements of geometry by continued attention alone; but 
self-knowledge, or an insight into the laws and constitution 
of the human mind and the grounds of religion and true 
morality, in addition to the effort of attention, requires the 
energy of thought. 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 5 

breathed : — even a living (that is, self-subsisting) 
soul, a soul having its life in itself. And man be- 
came a living soul. He did not merely possess it, 
he became it. It was his proper being, his truest 
self, the man in the man. None then, not one of 
human kind, so poor and destitute, but there is pro- 
vided for him, even in his present state, a house not 
built with hands; ay, and spite of the philosophy 
(falsely so called) which mistakes the causes, the 
conditions, and the occasions of our becoming con- 
scious of certain truths and realities for the truths 
and realities themselves — a house gloriously fur- 
nished. Nothing is wanted bat the eye, which is 
the light of this house, the light which is the eye of 
this soul. This seeing light, this enlightening eye, 
is reflection.* It is more, indeed, than is ordinarily 
meant by that word ; but it is what a Christian 
ought to mean by it, and to know too, whence it first 
came, and still continues to come — of what light even 
this light is but a reflection. This, too, is thought ; 
and all thought is but unthinking that does not flow 
out of this, or tend towards it. 

APHORISM X. 

Self-superintendence ! that any thing should over- 
look itself! Is not this a paradox, and hard to 
understand ? It is, indeed, difficult, and to the im- 
bruted sensualist a direct contradiction : and yet 
most truly does the poet exclaim, 

Unless above himself he can 

Erect himself, how mean a thing is man ! 



* The diavoia of St. John, 1 v. 20, inadequately rendered 
understanding in our translation. To exhibit the full force 
of the Greek word, we must say, a 'power of discernment by 
reason. 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM XI. 



An hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest 
prayer, or the conflict with, and conquest over, a 
single passion or " subtle bosom sin," will teach us 
more of thought, will more effectually awaken the 
faculty, and form the habit, of reflection, than a 
year's study in the Schools without them. 

APHORISM XII. 

In a world, the opinions of which are drawn from 
outside shows, many things may be paradoxical, 
(that is, contrary to the common notion) and never- 
theless true : nay, because they are true. How 
should it be otherwise, as long as the imagination of 
the worldling is wholly occupied by surfaces, while 
the Christian's thoughts are fixed on the substance, 
that which is and abides, and which, because it is 
the substance/ 1 " the outward senses cannot recognise. 
Tertullian had good reason for his assertion, that 
the simplest Christian (if indeed a Christian) knows 
more than the most accomplished irreligious philo- 
sopher 

COMMENT. 

Let it not, however, be forgotten, that the powers 
of the understanding and the intellectual graces are 

* Quod stat subtus, that which stands beneath, and (as it 
were) supports, the appearance. In a language like our3, so 
many words of which are derived from other languages, there 
are few modes of instruction more useful or more amusing 
than that of accustoming young people to seek for the 
etymology, or primary meaning of the words they use. 
There are cases, in which more knowledge of more value 
may be conveyed by the history of a word, than by the 
history of a campaign. 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 7 

precious gifts of God ; and that every Christian, ac- 
cording to the opportunities vouchsafed to him, is 
bound to cultivate the one and to acquire the other. 
Indeed, he is scarcely a Christian who wilfully neg- 
lects so to do. What says the Apostle ? Add to your 
faith knowledge, and to knowledge manly energy, — 

APHORISM XIII. 

Never yet did there exist a full faith in the Divine 
Word (by whom light, as well as immortality, was 
brought into the world), which did not expand the 
intellect, while it purified the heart ; — which did not 
multiply the aims and objects of the understanding, 
while it fixed and simplified those of the desires and 
passions. f 

COMMENT. 

If acquiescence without insight ; if warmth with- 
out light ; if an immunity from doubt, given and 
guaranteed by a resolute ignorance ; if the habit of 
taking for granted the words of a catechism, remem- 
bered or forgotten ; if a mere sensation of positive- 
ness substituted — I will not say for the sense of cer- 
tainty, but — for that calm assurance, the very means 

* 2 Pet, ii. 5.— Ed. 
f The effects of a zealous ministry on the intellects and 
acquirements of the labouring classes are not only attested 
by Baxter, and the Presbyterian divines, but admitted by 
Bishop Burnet, who, during his mission in the west of Scot- 
land, was " amazed to find a poor commonalty so able to 
argue," &c. But we need not go to a sister church for proof 
or example. The diffusion of light and knowledge through 
this kingdom, by the exertions of the bishops and clergy, by 
Episcopalians and Puritans, from Edward VI. to the Kesto- 
ration, was as wonderful as it is praiseworthy, and may be 
justly placed among the most remarkable facts in history. 



8 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and conditions of which it supersedes ; if a belief 
that seeks the darkness, and yet strikes no root, im- 
moveable as the limpet from the rock, and, like the 
]impet, fixed there by mere force of adhesion; — if 
these suffice to make men Christians, in what sense 
could the Apostle affirm that believers receive, not 
indeed worldly wisdom, which comes to nought, but 
the wisdom of God, that we might know and com- 
prehend the things that are freely given to us of 
God? On what grounds could he denounce the 
sincerest fervour of spirit as defective, where it does 
not likewise bring forth fruits in the understanding ? 

APHORISM XIV. 

In our present state, it is little less than impossible 
that the affections should be kept constant to an 
object which gives no employment to the under- 
standing, and yet cannot be made manifest to the 
senses. The exercise of the reasoning and reflecting 
powers, increasing insight, and enlarging views, are 
requisite to keep alive the substantial faith in the 
heart. 

APHORISM XV. 

In the state of perfection, perhaps, all other fa- 
culties may be swallowed up in love, or superseded 
by immediate vision ; but it is on the wings of the 
cherubim, that is (according to the interpretation of 
the ancient Hebrew doctors), the intellectual powers 
and energies, that we must first be borne up to the 
" pure empyrean." It must be seraphs, and not the 
hearts of imperfect mortals, that can burn unfuelled 
and self-fed. Give me understanding (is the prayer 
of the royal Psalmist), and I shall observe thy law 
with my whole heart. — Thy law is exceeding broad 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 9 

—that is, comprehensive, pregnant, containing' far 
more than the apparent import of the words on a first 
perusal. — It is my meditation all the day* 

COMMENT. 

It is worthy of especial observation, that the Scrip- 
tures are distinguished from all other writings pre- 
tending to inspiration, by the strong and frequent 
recommendations of knowledge, and a spirit of in- 
quiry. Without reflection, it is evident that neither 
the one can he acquired nor the other exercised, 

APHORISM XYL 

The word rational has been strangely abused of late 
times. This must not, however, disincline us to the 
weighty consideration, that thoughtfulness, and a 
desire to bottom all our convictions on grounds of 
right reason, are inseparable from the character of a 
Christian. 

APHORISM XVII. 

A. reflecting mind is not a flower that grows wild, 
or comes up of its own accord. The difficulty is 
indeed greater than many, who mistake quick recol- 
lection for thought, are disposed to admit ; but how 
much less than it would be, had we not been born 
and bred in a Christian and Protestant land, few of 
us are sufficiently aware. Truly may we, and thank- 
fully ought we to, exclaim with the Psalmist : The 
entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth under 
standing to the simple.] 

APHORISM XVHI. 

Examine the journals of our zealous missionaries, 

* Ps. cxix. — Ed. + Ps. cxix. — Ed. 



10 AIDS TO REFLECTION'. 

I will not say among the Hottentots or Esquimaux, - 
but in the highly civilised, though fearfully uncul- 
tivated, inhabitants of ancient India. How often, 
and how feelingly, do they describe the difficulty of 
rendering the simplest chain of thought intelligible 
to the ordinary natives, the rapid exhaustion of their 
whole power of attention, and with what distressful 
effort it is exerted while it lasts ! Yet it is among 
these that the hideous practices of self-torture chiefly 
prevail. if folly were no easier than wisdom, it 
being often so very much more grievous, how cer- 
tainly might these unhappy slaves of superstition be 
converted to Christianity ! But, alas ! to swing by 
hooks passed through the back, or to walk in shoes 
with nails of iron pointed upwards through the soles 
— all this is so much less difficult, demands so much 
less exertion of the will than to reflect, and by re- 
flection to gain knowledge and tranquillity ! 

COMMENT. 

It is not true, that ignorant persons have no notion 
of the advantages of truth and knowledge. They con- 
fess, they see and bear witness too, these advantages 
in the conduct, the immunities, and the superior 
powers of the possessors. Were they attainable by 
pilgrimages the most toilsome, or penances the most 
painful, we should assuredly have as many pilgrims 
and self- tormentors in the service of true religion, as 
now exist under the tyranny of Papal or Brahman 
superstition. 

APHORISM XIX 

In countries enlightened by the Gospel, however, 
the most formidable and (it is to be feared) the most 
frequent impediment to men's turning their minds in- 
wards upon themselves, is that they are afraid of what 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS, ]] 

they shall find there. There is an aching hollowness 
in the bosom, a dark cold speck at the heart, an 
obscure and boding sense of a somewhat, that must 
be kept out of sight of the conscience ; some secret 
lodger, whom they can neither resolve to eject or 
retain.* 

COMMENT. 

Few are so obdurate, few have sufficient strength of 
character, to be able to draw forth an evil tendency 
or immoral practice into distinct consciousness, 
without bringing it in the same moment before an 
awaking conscience. But for this very reason it be- 
comes a duty of conscience to form the mind to a 
habit of distinct consciousness. An unreflecting 
Christian walks in twilight among snares and pit- 
falls ! He entreats the heavenly Father not to lead 
him into temptation, and yet places himself on the 
very edge of it, because he will not kindle the torch 

* The following Sonnet from Herbert's " Temple" may 
serve as a forcible comment on the words in the text : — 

GRACES VOUCHSAFED IN A CHRISTIAN LAND. 

Lord ! with what care hast thou begirt us round ! 
Parents first season us. Then schoolmasters 
Deliver us to laws. They send us bound 
To rules of reason. Holy messengers : 
Pulpits and Sundays ; sorrow dogging sin ; 
Afflictions sorted ; anguish of all sizes ; 
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in ! 
Bibles laid open ; millions of surprises ; 
Blessings beforehand ; ties of gratefulness ; 
The sound of glory ringing in our ears : 
Without, our shame ; within, our consciences; 
Angels and grace'; eternal hopes and fears ! 
Yet all these fences, and their whole array, 
One cunning bosom sin blows quite away. 



\2 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

which his Father had given into his hands, as a mean 
of prevention, and lest he should pray too late. 

APHORISM XX. 

Among the various undertakings of men, can there 
be mentioned one more important, can there be con- 
ceived one more sublime, than an intention to form 
the human mind anew after the Divine Image? The 
very intention, if it be sincere, is a ray of its dawning. 
The requisites for the execution of this high intent 
may be comprised under three heads ; the prudential, 
the moral, and the spiritual. 

APHORISM XXI. 

First, Religious Prudence. — What this is, will be 
best explained by its effects and operations. Pru- 
dence, in the service of religion, consists in the pre- 
vention or abatement of hindrances and distractions ; 
and consequently in avoiding, or removing, all such 
circumstances as, by diverting the attention of the 
workman, retard the progress and hazard the safety 
of the work. It is likewise (I deny not) a part of 
this unworldly prudence, to place ourselves as much 
and as often as it is in our power so to do, in cir- 
cumstances directly favourable to our great design ; 
and to avail ourselves of all the positive helps and 
furtherances which these circumstances afford. But 
neither dare w 7 e, as Christians, forget whose and 
under what dominion the things are, quce nos cir- 
cumstant, that is, which stand around us. We are 
to remember, that it is the world that constitutes our 
outward circumstances ; that in the form of the 
world which is evermore at variance with the divine 
form or idea, they are cast and moulded ; and that 
of the means and measures which prudence requires 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISM. 13 

in the forming anew of the divine image in the soul, 
the greatest part supposes the world at enmity with 
our design. We are to avoid its snares, to repel its 
attacks, to suspect its aids and succours, and even 
when compelled to receive them as allies within our 
trenches, yet to commit the outworks alone to their 
charge, and to keep them at a jealous distance from 
the citadel. The powers of the world are often 
christened, but seldom christianised. They are but 
proselytes of the outer gate : or, like the Saxons of 
old, enter the land as auxiliaries, and remain in it as 
conquerors and lords 

APHORISM XXII. 

The rules of prudence, in general, like the laws of 
the stone tables, are for the most part prohibitive. 
Thou shalt not is their characteristic formula : and 
it is an especial part of Christian prudence that it 
should be so. Nor would it he difficult to bring under 
this head all the social obligations that arise out of 
the relations of the present life, which the sensual 
understanding [to (ppovrjfjLa rrjs crapKos, Rom. viii. 6.) 
is of itself able to discover, and the performance 
of which, under favourable circumstances, the merest 
worldly self-interest, without love or faith, is sufficient 
to enforce ; but which Christian prudence enlivens by 
a higher principle, and renders symbolic and sacra- 
mental. (Eph. v. 32.) 



This, then, under the appellation of prudential 
requisites, comes first under consideration ; and may 
be regarded as the shrine and framework for the 
divine image, into which the worldly human is to be 
transformed. We are next to bring out the divine 



14 AIDS TO REFLECTION, 

portrait itself, the distinct features of its countenance, 
as a sojourner among men ; its benign aspect turned 
towards its fellow-pilgrims, the extended arm, and 
the hand that blesseth and healetb, 

APHORISM XXIII. 

The outward service (Oprj or Keia^) of ancient religion, 
the rites, ceremonies, and ceremonial vestments of 
the old law, had morality for their substance. They 
^ r ere the letter, of which morality was the spirit ; the 
enigma, of which morality was the meaning. But 
morality itself is the service and ceremonial (cultus 
exterior, Opiqo-Keia) of the Christian religion. The 
scheme of grace and truth that became \ through 

* See the epistle of St. James, i. 26, 27, where, in the 
authorised version, the Greek word OpTjaKeia is rendered 
religion. This is, or at all events, for the English reader of 
our times, has the effect of an erroneous translation. It not 
only obscures the connexion of the passage, and weakens 
the peculiar force and sublimity of the thought, rendering it 
comparatively flat and trivial, almost indeed tautological, 
but has occasioned this particular verse to be perverted into 
a support of a very dangerous error ; and the whole epistle 
to be considered as a set-off against the epistles and declara- 
tions of St. Paul, instead of (what in fact it is) a masterly 
comment and confirmation of the same. I need not inform 
the reader, that James i. 27, is the favourite text and most 
boasted authority of those divines who represent the Re- 
deemer of the world as little more than a moral reformer, 
and the Christian faith as a code of ethics, differing from the 
moral system of Moses and the Prophets by an additional 
motive, or rather by the additional strength and clearness 
which the historical fact of the resurrection has given to the 
same motive. 

f The Greek word tyivero unites in itself the two senses 
of began to exist and was made to exist. It exemplifies the 
force of the middle voice, in distinction from the verb reflex. 



INTBODUCTOBY APHORISMS. 13 

Jesus Christ, the faith that looks * down into the 
perfect law of liberty, has light for its garment ; its 
very robe is righteousness. 

The same word is used in the same sense by Aristophanes in 
that famous parody on the cosmogonies of the mythic poeta, 
or the creation of the finite, as delivered, or supposed to be 
delivered, in the Cabiric or Samothracian mysteries, in the 
Comedy of the Birds. 

. — 7«/€t' Ovoauos i &K$ai'6s ts 

Ka! Trj. 

* James i. 25. s O 5e Trapantyas etj vofxov reAeiov rhv trjs 
iAevdepias. Hapaictyas signifies the incurvation or bending 
of the body in the act of looking down into ; as, for instance, 
in the endeavour to see the reflected image of a star in the 
water at the bottom of a well. A more happy or forcible 
word could not have been chosen to express the nature and 
ultimate object of reflection, and to enforce the necessity of 
it, in order to discover the living fountain and spring-head 
of the evidence of the Christian faith in the believer himself, 
and at the same time to point out the seat and region 
where alone it is to be found. Quantum sumus scimus. That 
which we find within ourselves, which is more than ourselves, 
and yet the ground of whatever is good and permanent 
therein, is the substance and life of all other knowledge. 

N.B. The Familists of the sixteenth century, and similar 
enthusiasts of later date, overlooked the essential point, that 
it was a law, and a law that involved its own end (re'Aos), 
a perfect law (reAeios) or law that perfects or completes 
itself; and therefore its obligations are called, in reference 
to human statutes, imperfect duties, that is, incoercible from 
without. They overlooked that it was a law that portions 
out (vofxos from ve^a) to allot, or make division of) to each 
man the sphere and limits, within which it is to be ex- 
ercised — which as St. Peter notices of certain profound pas- 
sages in the writings of St. Paul (2 Pet. iii. 16), ol ajj.ade7s koI 

a(JT7}pLKT0l, (TTp£fi\OV(nV, WS Kdl TO.S KOLTTaS ypCKptitS, TTpOS T1]V 

Additional note. For a rational agent the obligation of a 



16 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



Herein the Apostle places the pre-eminence, the 
peculiar and distinguishing excellence, of the Chris- 
tian religion. The ritual is of the same kind, 
(dfJLOOvcnov) though not of the same order, with the 
religion itself — not arbitrary or conventional, as types 
and hieroglyphics are in relation to the things ex- 
pressed by them ; but inseparable, consubstantiated 
(as it were), and partaking therefore of the same life, 
permanence, and intrinsic worth with its spirit and 
principle 

APHORISM XXIV. 

Morality is the body, of which the faith in Christ 
is the soul — so far indeed its earthly body, as it is 
adapted to its state of warfare on earth, and the 
appointed form and instrument of its communion with 
the present world ; yet not " terrestrial," nor of the 
world, but a celestial body, and capable of being 
transfigured from glory to glory, in accordance with 
the varying circumstances and outward relations of 
its moving and informing spirit. 

APHORISM XXV. 

Woe to the man, who will believe neither power, 
freedom, nor morality, because he nowhere finds 
either entire, or unmixed with sin, thraldom and in- 
firmity. In the natural and intellectual realms, we 

law is coeval and commensurate with the perception of its 
lawfulness. Only on this ground is he a moral agent : in 
this consists the possibility of any morality at all. The 
mind can scarcely conceive a grosser absurdity, than U) 
separate the Law and the Obligation, to seek the source and 
seat of the one in the divine of our nature, and of the other 
in the beast 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 17 

distinguish what we cannot separate ; and in the 
moral world, we must distinguish in order to separate. 
Yea, in the clear distinction of good from evil the 
process of separation commences 

COMMENT. 

It was customary with religious men in former 
times, to make a rule of taking every morning some 
text, or aphorism,* for their occasional meditation 
during the day, and thus to fill up the intervals of their 
attention to business. I do not point it out for imi- 
tation, as knowing too well, how apt these self-imposed 
rules are to degenerate into superstition or hollowness; 
otherwise I would have recommended the following 
as the first exercise. 

APHORISM XXVI. 

It is a dull and obtuse mind, that must divide in 
order to distinguish ; but it is a still worse, that dis- 
tinguishes in order to divide. In the former, we may 
contemplate the source of superstition and idolatry ; f 

* ApJwrism, determinate position, from acpopi(*ii>, to bound, 
or limit; whence our horizon. — In order to get the full 
sense of a word, we should first present to our minds the 
visual image that forms its primary meaning. Draw lines 
of different colours round the different counties of England, 
and then cut out each separately, as in the common play-maps 
that children take to pieces and put together — so that each 
district can be contemplated apart from the rest, as a whole 
in itself. This twofold act of circumscribing, and detaching, 
when it is exerted by the mind on subjects of reflection and 
reason, is to aphorise, and the result an aphorism. 

*T Tb potjtov SiripriKCKTLv els rro Wcou Oecvu iBiOTrjras. — Damasc. 
de Myst. Egypt. ; that is, They divided the intelligible into 
many and several individualities; 

C 



18 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

in the latter of schism, heresy, and a seditious and 
sectarian spirit/ 1 " 

APHORISM XXVII. 

Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest 
and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of 
aphorisms : and the greatest and best of men is but 
an aphorism. 

APHORISM XXVIII. 

On the prudential influence which the fear or foresight of 
the consequences of his actions, in respect of his own loss 
or gain, may exert on a newly converted believer. 

Precautionary remark. — I meddle not with the 
dispute respecting conversion, whether, and in what 
sense, necessary in all Christians. It is sufficient 
for my purpose, that a very large number of men, 
even in Christian countries, need to be converted, 
and that not a few, I trust, have been. The tenet 
becomes fanatical and dangerous, only when rare and 
extraordinary exceptions are made to be the general 
rule ; — when what was vouchsafed to the Apostle of 
the Gentiles by especial grace, and for an especial 
purpose, namely, a conversion f begun and completed 

* I mean these words in their large and philosophic sense 
in relation to the spirit, or originating temper and tendency, 
and not to any one mode under which, or to any one class 
in or by which, it may be displayed. A seditious spirit 
may (it is possible, though not probable) exist in the council- 
chamber of a palace as strongly as in a mob in Palace -yard ; 
and a sectarian spirit in a cathedral, no less than in a con- 
venticle. 

f " In this sense, especially, doth St. Paul call himself 
abortivum, a person born out of season, that whereas Christ's 
other disciples and apostles had a breeding under him, and 
came first ad discipulatum, and then ad apostolatum, first to 



I1NTE0DUCT0RY APHOEISMS. 19 

in the same moment, is demanded or expected of all 
men, as a necessary sign and pledge of their election. 
Late observations have shown, that under many cir- 
cumstances the magnetic needle, even after the 
disturbing influence has been removed, will continue 
wavering, and require many days before it points 
aright, and remains steady to the pole. So is it ordi- 
narily with the soul, after it has begun to free itself 
from the disturbing forces of the flesh, and the world, 
and to convert* itself towards God. 

APHORISM XXIX. 

Awakened by the cock-crow — (a sermon, a cala- 
mity, a sick-bed, or a providential escape) — the 
Christian pilgrim sets out in the morning twilight, 
while yet the truth (the vojjlos reXeios 6 rfjs e/\e?;0e- 
pias) is below the horizon. Certain necessary con- 
sequences of his past life and his present undertaking 
will be seen by the refraction of its light : more will 
be apprehended and conjectured. The phantasms, 
that had predominated during the hours of darkness, 
are still busy. Though they no longer present them- 
selves as distinct forms, they yet remain as formative 
motions in the pilgrim's soul, unconscious of its own 
activity and over-mastered by its own workmanship, 

be disciples, and after to be apostles. St. Paul was bom a 
man, an apostle ; not carved out as the rest, in time, but a 
fusile apostle, an apostle poured out and cast in a mould. 
As Adam was a perfect man in an instant, so was St. Paul 
an apostle as soon as Christ took him in hand." Donne's 
Sena. (vol. ii. p. 299. Alford's edit. Ed.) The same spirit 
was the lightning that melted, and the mould that received 
and shaped him. 

* That is, by an act of the will to turn towards the true 
pole, at the same time that the understanding is convinced 
and made aware of its existence and direction. 

c 2 



•-0 AIDS TO REFLECTION 

Tilings take the signature of thought. The shapes of 
the recent dream hecome a mould for the objects in 
the distance, and these again give an outwardness and 
sensation of reality to the shapings of the dream. 
The bodings inspired by the long habit of selfishness, 
and self-seeking cunning, though they are now com- 
mencing the process of their purification into that 
fear which is the beginning of wisdom, and which, as 
such, is ordained to be our guide and safeguard, till 
the sun of love, the perfect law of liberty, is fully 
arisen — these bodings will set the fancy at work, and 
haply, for a time, transform the mists of dim and 
imperfect knowledge into determinate superstitions. 
But in either case, whether seen clearly or dimly, 
whether beholden or only imagined, the consequences 
contemplated in their bearings on the individual's 
inherent * desire of happiness and dread of pain 

* The following extract from the second of Leighton's 
" Theological Lectures," may serve as a comment on this 
sentence : — 

"Yet the human mind, however stunned and weakened 
by so dreadful a fall, still retains some faint idea, some con- 
fused and obscure notions, of the good it has lost, and some 
remaining seeds of its heavenly original. It has also still 
remaining a kind of languid sense of its misery and indi- 
gence, with affections suitable to those obscure notions. 
This at least is beyond all doubt and indisputable, that all 
men wish well to themselves; nor can the mind of man 
divest itself of this propensity, without divesting itself of 
its being. This is what the Schoolmen mean when in their 
manner of expression they say, that ' the will {voluntas not 
aroitrium) is carried towards happiness, not simply as will, 
but as nature/ " 

I venture to remark that this position, if not more cer- 
tainly, would be more evidently, true, if instead of beatitudo 
the word indolentia (that is, freedom from pain, negative 
happiness) had been used. But this depends on the exact 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 21 

become motives ; and, unless all distinction in the 
words be done away with, and either prudence or 
virtue be reduced to a superfluous synonyme, a redun- 
dancy in all the languages of the civilised world, 
these motives and the acts and forbearances directly 
proceeding from them fall under the head of Prudence, 
as belonging to one or other of its four very distinct 
species. 

I. It may be a prudence, that stands in opposition 
to a higher moral life, and tends to preclude it, and to 
prevent the soul from ever arriving at the hatred of 
sin for its own exceeding sinfulness [Rom. vii. 13): 
and this is an evil prudence. 

II. Or it may be a neutral prudence, not incom- 
patible with spiritual growth : and to this we may, with 
especial propriety, apply the words of our Lord, What 
is not against us is for us. It is therefore an innocent, 
and (being such) a proper, and commendable prudence. 

III. Or it may lead and be subservient to a higher 
principle than itself. The mind and conscience of 
the individual may be reconciled to it, in the fore- 
knowledge of the higher principle, and with yearning 
towards it that implies a foretaste of future freedom. 
The enfeebled convalescent is reconciled to his 

meaning attached to the term " self/' of which more in 
another place. One conclusion, however, follows inevitably 
from the preceding position: namely, that this propensity 
can never be legitimately made the principle of morality, 
even because it is no part or appurtenance of the moral will : 
and because the proper object of the moral principle is to 
limit and control this propensity, and to determine in what 
it may be, and what it ought to be, gratified : while it is the 
business of philosophy to instruct the understanding, and 
the office of religion to convince the whole man, that other- 
wise than as a regulated, and of course therefore a subordi- 
nate, end, this propensity innate and inalienable though it 
be ; can never be realised or fulfilled. 



22 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

crutches, and thankfully makes use of them, not only 
because the} T are necessary for his immediate support, 
but likewise, because they are the means and condi- 
tions of exercise, and by exercise, of establishing, 
gradaiini paulatim, that strength, flexibility, and 
almost spontaneous obedience of the muscles, which 
the idea and cheering presentiment of health hold 
out to him. He finds their value in their present 
necessity, and their worth as they are the instruments 
of finally superseding it. This is a faithful, a wise 
prudence, having, indeed, its birth-place in the world, 
and the wisdom of this world for its father ; but natu- 
ralised in a better land, and having the wisdom from 
above for its sponsor and spiritual parents. To steal 
a dropt feather from the spicy nest of the phoenix, 
(the fond humour, I mean, of the mystic divines and 
allegorisers of Holy Writ) — it is the son of Terah 
from Ur of the Chaldees, who gives a tithe of all to 
the King of Righteousness, without father, without 
mother, without descent (v6\xos clvtovoijlos), and 
receives a blessing on the remainder. 

IV. Lastly, there is a prudence that co-exists with 
morality, as morality co-exists with the spiritual life : 
a prudence that is the organ of both, as the under- 
standing is to the reason and the will, or as the lungs 
are to the heart and brain. This is a holy prudence, 
the steward faithful and discreet {oIkovoixos Trtcrro? 
koI (bpovLfjios, Lake xii. 42) the eldest servant in the 
family of faith, born in the house, and made the ruler 
over Ids lord's household. 

Let not then, I entreat you, my purpose be misun- 
derstood ; as if, in distinguishing virtue from pru- 
dence, I wished to divide the one from the other. 
True morality is hostile to that prudence only, which 
is preclusive of true morality. The teacher, who sub- 
ordinates prudence to virtue, cannot be supposed to 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 23 

dispense with virtue; and he, who teaches the proper 
connexion of the one with the other, does not depre- 
ciate the lower in any sense ; while, by making it a 
link of the same chain with the higher, and receiving 
the same influence, he raises it. 

In general, morality may be compared to the con- 
sonant ; prudence to the vowel. The former cannot 
be uttered (reduced to practice) but by means of the 
latter. 

APHORISM XXX. 

What the duties of morality are, the Apostle instructs 
the believer in full, comprising them under the two 
heads of negative and positive ; negative, to keep 
himself pure from the world; and positive, beneficence 
from loving-kindness, that is, love of his fellow T -men 
(his kind) as himself. 

APHORISM XXXI. 

Last and highest come the spiritual, comprising all 
the truths, acts, and duties, that have an especial 
reference to the timeless, the permanent, the eternal, 
to the sincere love of the true as truth, of the good as 
good, and of God as both in one. It comprehends 
the whole ascent from uprightness (morality, virtue, 
inward rectitude) to godlikeness, with all the acts, 
exercises, and disciplines of mind, will, and affection, 
that are requisite or conducive to the great design 
of our redemption from the form of the evil One, and 
of our second creation or birth in the divine image.* 

* It is worthy of observation, and may furnish a fruitful 
subject for future reflection, how nearly the Scriptural divi- 
sion coincides with the Platonic, which commencing with the 
prudential, or the habit of act and purpose proceeding from 
enlightened self-interest [qui animi imperio, corporis servitio, 
rerum auxilio, inr>roprium sui commodum et sibi providus utitur, 
hunc esse prudentem statuirnus], ascends to the moral, that is, 



24 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM XXXII. 



It may be an additional aid to reflection, to distin- 
guish the three kinds severally, according to the 
/ faculty to which each corresponds, the part of our 
human nature which is more particularly its organ. 
Thus : the prudential corresponds to the sense and 
the understanding ; the moral to the heart and the 
conscience ; the spiritual to the will and the reason, 
that is, to the finite will reduced to harmony with, and 
in subordination to, the reason, as a ray from that true 
light which is both reason and will, universal reason, 
and will absolute. 

to the purifying and remedial virtues ; and seeks its summit 
in the imitation of the divine nature. In this last division, 
answering to that which we have called the spiritual, Plato 
includes all those inward acts and aspirations, waitings, and 
watchings, which have a growth in godlikeness for their 
immediate purpose, and the union of the human soul with 
the supreme good as their ultimate object. Nor was it 
altogether without grounds that several of the Fathers 
ventured to believe that Plato had some dim conception of 
the necessity of a divine Mediator; — whether through some 
indistinct echo of the Patriarchal faith, or some rays of light 
refracted from the Hebrew Prophets through the Phoenician 
medium (to which he may possibly have referred in his 
phrase 0€oirapaS6Tos (rocpia, the wisdom delivered from God), 
or by his own sense of the mysterious contradiction in human 
nature between the will and the reason, the natural appe- 
tences and the not less innate law of conscience (Romans ii. 
14, 15), we shall in vain attempt to determine. It is not 
impossible that all three may have co-operated in partially 
unveiling these awful truths to this plank from the wreck of 
Paradise thrown on the shores of idolatrous Greece, to this 
divine philosopher, 

Chen quella schiera ando piu presso al segno 
Al qual aggiunge, a eld dal cielo e dato. 

Petrarch. Trionfo della Fama, cap. iii. 5, 6. 



vr. 



REFLECTIONS 



INTRODUCTORY TO 



MORAL AXD RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 



OX SENSIBILITY. 

If Prudence, though practically inseparable from 
morality, is not to be confounded with the moral 
principle : still less may Sensibility, that is. a con- 
stitutional quickness of sympathy with pain and 
pleasure, and a keen sense of the gratifications that 
accompany social intercourse, mutual endearments, 
and reciprocal preferences, be mistaken, or deemed 
a substitute, for either. Sensibility is not even a 
sure pledge of a good heart, though among the most 
common meanings of that many-meaning and too 
commonly misapplied expression. 

So far from beiug either morality, or one with the 
moral principle, it ought not even to be placed in the 
same rank with prudence. For prudence is at least 
an offspring of the understanding ; but sensibility 
(the sensibility, I mean, here spoken of ), is for the 
greater part a quality of the nerves, and a result of 
individual bodily temperament. 

Prudence is an active principle, and implies a sa- 
crifice of self, though only to the same self projected. 
as it were, to a distance. But the very term sensi- 
bility marks its passive nature ; and in its mere self, 
apart from choice and reflection, it proves little more 



20 AIDS TO REFLECTION 

than the coincidence or contagion of pleasurable or 
painful sensations in different persons. 

Alas ! how many are there in this over-stimulated 
age, — in which the occurrence of excessive and un- 
healttry sensitiveness is so frequent, as even to have 
reversed the current meaning of the word, nervous, — 
how many are there whose sensibility prompts them 
to remove those evils alone, which by hideous spec- 
tacle or clamorous outcry are present to their senses 
and disturb their selfish enjoyments ! Provided the 
dunghill is not before their parlour-window, they are 
well contented to know that it exists, and perhaps as 
the hotbed on which their own luxuries are reared. 
Sensibility is not necessarily benevolence. Nay, by 
rendering us tremblingly alive to trifling misfortunes, 
it frequently prevents it, and induces an effeminate 
selfishness instead, 

pampering the coward heart 

With feelings all too delicate for use. 

Sweet are the tears, that from a Howard's eye 

Drop on the cheek of one, he lifts from earth : 

And he, who works me good with unmoved face, 

Does it but half : he chills me, while he aids, 

My benefactor, not my brother man. 

But even this, this cold benevolence, 

Seems worth, seems manhood, when there rise before me 

The sluggard pity's vision-weaving tribe, 

Who sigh for wretchedness yet shun the wretched, 

Nursing in some delicious solitude 

Their slothful loves and dainty sympathies.* 

Where virtue is, sensibility is the ornament and 
becoming attire of virtue. On certain occasions it 
may almost be said to become f virtue. But sensibility 

* Poems, 1797, p. 103; Poems, 1852, p. 233; with a 
slight difference of expression in each case. — Ed. 

f There sometimes occurs an apparent play on words, 



SENSIBILITY. HI 

and all the amiable qualities may likewise become, 
and too often have become, the pandars of vice, and 
the instruments of seduction. 

So must it needs be with all qualities that have 
their rise only in parts and fragments of our nature. 
A man of warm passions may sacrifice half his estate 
to rescue a friend from prison : for he is naturally 
sympathetic, and the more social part of his nature 
happened to be uppermost. The same man shall 
afterwards exhibit the same disregard of money in an 
attempt to seduce that friend's wife or daughter. 

All the evil achieved by Hobbes and the whole 
school of materialists will appear inconsiderable if it 
be compared with the mischief effected and occasioned 
by the sentimental philosophy of Sterne, and his 
numerous imitators. The vilest appetites and the 
most remorseless inconstancy towards their objects, 
acquired the titles of the heart, the irresistible feelings, 
the too tender sensibility : and if the frosts of prudence, 
the icy chains of human law thawed and vanished 
at the genial warmth of human nature, who could help 
it ? It was an amiable weakness ! 

About this time, too, the profanation of the word, 
Love, rose to its height. The French naturalists, 
BufTon and others, borrowed it from the sentimental 
novelists : the Swedish and English philosophers 
took the contagion ; and the Muse of science conde- 
scended to seek admission into the saloons of fashion 

which not only to the inoraliser, but even to the philoso- 
phical etymologist, appears more than a mere play. Thus in 
the double sense of the word, become. I have known persons 
so anxious to have their dress become them, as to convert it 
at length into their proper self, and thus actually to become 
the dress. Such a one (safeliest spoken of by the neutei pro- 
noun), I consider as but a suit of live finery. It is indifferent 
whether we. say — it becomes he ; or, he becomes it. 



128 AIDS TO REFLECTR)N 

and frivolity, rouged like a harlot, and with the har 
lot's wanton leer. I know not how the annals of guilt 
could be better forced into the service of virtue, than 
by such a comment on the present paragraph, as 
would be afforded by a selection from the sentimental 
correspondence produced in courts of justice within 
the last thirty years, fairly translated into the true 
meaning of the words, and the actual object and 
purpose of the infamous writers. 

Do you in good earnest aim at dignity of character ? 
By all the treasures of a peaceful mind, by all the 
charms of an open countenance, I conjure you, 
youth, turn away from those who live in the twilight 
between vice and virtue. Are not reason, discrimi- 
nation, law, and deliberate choice, the distinguishing 
characters of humanity ? Can aught, then, worthy 
of a human being proceed from a habit of soul, which 
would exclude all these and (to borrow a metaphor 
from paganism) prefer the den of Trophonius to the 
temple and oracles of the God of light ? Can anything 
manly, I say, proceed from those, who for law and 
light would substitute shapeless feelings, sentiments, 
impulses, which as far as they differ from the vital 
workings in the brute animals owe the difference to 
their former connexion with the proper virtues of 
humanity ; as dendrites derive the outlines, that 
constitute their value above other clay-stones, from 
the casual neighbourhood and pressure of the plants, 
the names of which they assume. Remember, that 
love itself in its highest earthly bearing, as the ground 
of the marriage union,* becomes love by an inward 

* It might be a mean of preventing many unhappy mar- 
riages, if the youth of both sexes had it early impressed on 
their minds, that marriage contracted between Christians is 
a true and perfect symbol or mystery ; that is, the actualising 
faith being supposed to exist in the receivers, it is an outward 



SENSIBILITY. 29 

fiat of the will, by a completing and sealing act of 
moral election, and lays claim to permanence only 
under the form of duty.* 

sign co-essential with, that which it signifies, or a living part 
of that, the whole of which it represents. Marriage there- 
fore, in the Christian sense (Ephesians v. 22 — 23), as symbo- 
lical of the union of the soul with Christ the Mediator, and 
with God through Christ, is perfectly a sacramental ordi- 
nance, and not retained at the Reformation as one of the 
sacraments, for two reasons ; first, that the sign is not dis- 
tinctive of the Church of Christ, and the ordinance not 
peculiar, nor owing its origin to the Gospel dispensation ; 
secondly, that it is not of universal obligation, nor a means 
of grace enjoined on all Christians. In other and plainer 
words, marriage does not contain in itself an open profession 
of Christ, and it is not a sacrament of the Church, but only 
of certain individual members of the Church. It is evident, 
however, that neither of these reasons affects or diminishes 
the religious nature and dedicative force of the marriage vow, 
or detracts from the solemnity in the Apostolic declaration : 
This is a great mystery. 

The interest, which the State has in the appropriation of 
one woman to one man, and the civil obligations therefrom 
resulting, form an altogether distinct consideration. When 
I meditate on the words of the Apostle, confirmed and illus- 
trated as they are, by so many harmonies in the spiritual 
structure of our proper humanity, — (in the image of God, 
male and female created he the man^ — and then reflect how 
little claim so large a number of legal cohabitations have to 
the name of Christian marriages — I feel inclined to doubt, 
whether the plan of celebrating marriages universally by the 
civil magistrate, in the first instance, and leaving the religious 
covenant and sacramental pledge to the election of the parties 
themselves, adopted during the Commonwealth in England, 
and in our own times by the French legislature, was not in fact, 
whatever it might be in intention, reverential to Christianity. 
At all events, it was their own act and choice, if the parties 
made bad worse by the profanation of a Gospel mystery. 

* See the beautiful passages. Poems, pp. 847 — 348. — Ed, 



Jo 



PRUDENTIAL APHOEISMS. 



APHORISM I. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE* 

With respect to any final aim or end, the greater 
part of mankind live at hazard. They have no certain 
harbour in view, nor direct their course by any fixed 
star. But to him that knoweth not the port to which 
he is bound, no wind can be favourable ; neither can 
he, who has not yet determined at what mark he is 
to shoot, direct his arrow aright. 

It is not, however, the less true that there is a 
proper object to aim at ; and if this object be meant 
by the term happiness, (though I think that not the 
most appropriate term for a state, the perfection of 
which consists in the exclusion of all hap, that is, 
chance), I assert that there is such a thing as human 
happiness, a summum bonam, or ultimate good. What 
this is, the Bible alone shows clearly and certainly; 
and points out the way that leads to the attainment 
of it. This is that which prevailed with St. Augustine 
to study the Scriptures, and engaged his affection to 
them. " In Cicero, and Plato, and other such waiters," 
says he, " I meet with many things acutely said, and 
things tkat excite a certain warmth of emotion, but 
in none of them do I find these words, Come unto 
vie, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I 
iv ill give you rest." * 

* Apad Ciceronem et Platonem, aliosque ejicsmodi scriptores, 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 



Felicity, in its proper sense, is but another word 
for fortunateness. or happiness ; and I can see no 
advantage in the improper use of words, when proper 
terms are to be found, but, on the contrary, much 
mischief. For, by familiarising the mind to equi- 
vocal expressions, that is, such as may be taken in 
two or more different meanings, we introduce con- 
fusion of thought, and furnish the sophist with his 
best and handiest tools. For the juggle of sophistry 
consists, for the greater part, in using a word in one 
sense in the premiss, and in another sense in the 
conclusion. We should accustom ourselves to think, 
and reason in precise and stedfast terms, even when 
custom, or the deficiency, or the corruption of the 
language will not permit the same strictness in 
speaking. The mathematician finds this so necessary 
to the truths which he is seeking, that his science 
begins with, and is founded on, the definition of his 
terms. The botanist, the chemist, the anatomist, 
feel and submit to this necessity at all costs, even at 
the risk of exposing their several pursuits to the 
ridicule of the many, by technical terms, hard to be 
remembered, and alike quarrelsome to the ear and 
the tongue. In the business of moral and religious 
reflection, in the acquisition of clear and distinct 
conceptions of our duties, and of the relations in 
which we stand to God, our neighbour, and ourselves, 
no such difficulties occur. At the utmost we have 
only to rescue words, already existing and familiar, 
from the false or vague meanings imposed on them 
by carelessness, or by the clipping and debasing 

multa sunt acute dicta, et leniter calentia, sed in Us omnibus 
hoc non invenio, Venite ad me, &c. [Matt. xii. 28.] (See Confess. 
vii. xxi. 27. — Ed.) 



32 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

misusage of the market. And surely happiness, duty, 
faith, truth, and final hlessedness, are matters of 
deeper and dearer interest for all men, than circles to 
the geometrician, or the characters of plants to the 
botanist, or the affinities and combining principle of 
the elements of bodies to the chemist, or even than 
the mechanism (fearful and wonderful though it be !) 
of the perishable tabernacle of the soul can be to the 
anatomist. Among the aids to reflection, place the 
following maxim prominent : let distinctness in ex- 
pression advance side by side with distinction in 
thought. For one useless subtlety in our elder divines 
and moralists, I will produce ten sophisms of equi- 
vocation in the writings of our modern preceptors : 
and for one error resulting from excess in distinguish- 
ing the indifferent, I could show ten mischievous 
delusions from the habit of confounding the diverse. 

Whether you are reflecting for yourself, or reason- 
ing with another, make it a rule to ask yourself the 
precise meaning of the word, on which the point in 
question appears to turn ; and if it may be (that is, 
by writers of authority has been) used in several 
senses, then ask which of these the word is at present 
intended to convey. By this mean, and scarcely 
without it, you will at length acquire a facility in 
detecting the quid pro quo. And believe me, in so 
doing you will enable yourself to disarm and expose 
four-fifths of the main arguments of our most re- 
nowned irreligious philosophers, ancient and modern. 
For the quid pro quo is at once the rock and quarry, 
on and with which the strongholds of disbelief, ma- 
terialism, and (more pernicious still) Epicurean 
morality, are built. 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 33 



APHORISM II. 



If we seriously consider what religion is, we shall 
find the saying of the wise king Solomon to be unex- 
ceptionably true : Her ways are ways of pleasantness, 
and all her paths are peace* 

Doth religion require anything of us more than 
that we live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
present world ? Now what, I pray, can be more 
pleasant or peaceable than these? Temperance i3 
always at leisure, luxury always in a hurry : the latter 
weakens the body and pollutes the soul ; the former 
is the sanctity, purity, and sound state of both. It is 
one of Epicurus's fixed maxims, " That life can never 
be pleasant without virtue." 

COMMENT. 

In the works of moralists, both Christian and 
Pagan, it is often asserted — (indeed there are few 
commonplaces of more frequent recurrence) — that the 
happiness even of this life consists solely, or princi- 
pally, in virtue ; that virtue is the only happiness of 
this life ; that virtue is the truest pleasure, and the like. 

I doubt not that the meaning, which the writers 
intended to convey by these and the like expressions, 
was true and wise. But I deem it safer to say, that 
in all the outward relations of this life, in all our 
outward conduct and actions, both in what we should 
do, and in what we should abstain from, the dictates 
of virtue are the very same with those of self-interest; 
tending to, though they do not proceed from, the 
same point. For the outward object of virtue being 
the greatest producible sum of happiness of all men, 
it must needs include the object of an intelligent 

* Prov. iii. 19.— Ed. 



34 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

self-love, which is the greatest possible happiness of 
one individual ; for what is true of all must be true 
of each. Hence, you cannot become better, that is, 
more virtuous, but you will become happier : and you 
cannot become worse, that is, more vicious, without 
an increase of misery, or at the best a proportional 
less of enjoyment as the consequence. If the thing 
were not inconsistent with our well-being, and known 
to be so, it would not have been classed as a vice. 
Thus what in an enfeebled and disordered mind is 
called prudence, is the voice of nature in a healthful 
state : as is proved by the known fact, that the 
prudential duties, that is, those actions which are 
commanded by virtue because they are prescribed by 
prudence, brute animals fulfil by natural instinct. 

The pleasure that accompanies or depends on a 
healthy and vigorous body will be the consequence 
and reward of a temperate life and habits of active 
industry, whether this pleasure were or were not the 
chief or only determining motive thereto. Virtue 
may, possibly, add to the pleasure a good of another 
kind, a higher good, perhaps, than the worldly mind 
is capable of understanding, a spiritual complacency, 
of which in your present sensualisecl state you can 
form no idea. It may add, I say, but it cannot 
detract from it. Thus the reflected rays of the sun 
that give light, distinction, and endless multiformity 
to the mind, give at the same time the pleasurable 
sensation of warmth to the body. 

If then the time has not yet come for any thing 
higher, act on the maxim of seeking the most plea- 
sure with the least pain : and, if only you do not 
seek where you yourself know it will not be found, 
this very pleasure and this freedom from the dis- 
quietude of pain may produce in you a state of being 
directlv and indirectly favourable to the germination 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 35 

and up spring of a nobler seed. If it be true, that 
men are miserable because they are wicked, it is like- 
wise true, that many are wicked because they are mi- 
serable. Health, cheerfulness, and easy circumstances, 
the ordinary consequences of temperance and industry, 
will at least leave the field clear and open, will tend to 
preserve the scales of the judgment even : while the 
consciousness of possessing the esteem, rospect, and 
sympathy of your neighbours, and the sense of your 
own increasing power and influence, can scarcely 
fail to give a tone of dignity to your mind, and in 
cline you to hope nobly of your own being. And 
thus they may prepare and predispose you to the 
sense and acknowledgment of a principle differing, 
not merely in degree but in kind, from the faculties 
and instincts of the higher and more intelligent spe- 
cies of animals, (the ant, the beaver, the elephant,) 
and which principle is therefore your proper huma- 
nity. And on this account and with this view alone 
may certain modes of pleasurable or agreeable sen- 
sation, without confusion of terms, be honoured with 
the title of refined, intellectual, ennobling pleasures. 
For pleasure — (and happiness in its proper sense is 
but the continuity and sum total of the pleasure 
which is allotted or happens to a man, and hence by 
the Greeks called tvrvyjia, that is, good hap, or more 
religiously, evbatfJLovia, that is, favourable providence) 
— pleasure, I say, consists in the harmony between 
the specific excitability of a living creature, and the 
exciting causes correspondent thereto. Considered 
therefore exclusively in and for itself, the only ques- 
tion is quantum, not quale / How much on the 
whole ? the contrary, that is, the painful and disa- 
greeable, having been subtracted. The quality is a 
matter of taste : et de gustibus non est disputandur& 
83*0 man can judge for another. 

32 



36 A1D3 TO EEFLECTION. 

This, I repeat, appears to me a safer language 
than the sentences quoted above — (that virtue alone 
is happiness ; that happiness consists in virtue, and 
the like) — sayings which I find it hard to reconcile 
with other positions of still more frequent occurrence 
in the same divines, or with the declaration of St. 
Paul : If in this life only we have hope, ive are of all 
men most miserable.* 

At all events, I should rely far more confidently 
on the converse, namely, that to he vicious is to be 
miserable. Few men are so utterly reprobate, so 
imbruted by their vices, as not to have some lucid, 
or at least quiet and sober, intervals ; and in such a 
moment, dum desaviunt \rm y few can stand up un- 
shaken against the appeal to their own experience 
— What have been the wages of sin ? What has the 
devil done for you ? What sort of master have you 
found him ? Then let us in befitting detail, and by a 
series of questions that ask so loud, and are secure 
against any false answer, urge home the proof of 
the position, that to be vicious is to be wretched; 
adding the fearful corollary, that if even in the body, 
which as long as life is in it can never he wholly be- 
reaved of pleasurable sensations, vice is found to be 
misery, what must it not be in the world to come ? 
There, where even the crime is no longer possible, 
much less the gratifications that once attended it; — 
where nothing of vice remains but its guilt and its 
misery — vice must be misery itself, all and utter 
misery. — So best, if I err not, may the motives of pru- 
dence be held forth, and the impulses of self-love be 
awakened, in alliance with truth, and free from the 
danger of confounding things (the laws of duty, I 
mean, and the maxims of interest) which it deeplj 

* 1 Cm xv. 1§.—Ed. 



PHUDENTIAL APHOIUSMS. 37 

concerns us to keep distinct ; inasmuch as tl lis dis- 
tinction and the faith therein are essential to our 
moral nature, and this again the ground-work and 
pre-condition of the spiritual state, in which the 
humanity strives after godliness, and in the name and 
power, and through the prevenient and assisting 
grace, of the Mediator, will not strive in vain. 

The advantages of a life passed in conformity with 
the precepts of virtue and religion, and in how many 
and various respects they recommend virtue and 
religion even on grounds of prudence, form a delight- 
ful subject of meditation, and a source of refreshing 
thought to good and pious men. Nor is it strange 
if, transported with the view, such persons should 
sometimes discourse on the charm of forms and 
colours to men whose eyes are not yet couched ; or 
that they occasionally seem to invert the relations of 
cause and effect, and forget that there are acts and 
determinations of the will and affections, the conse- 
quences of which may be plainly foreseen, and yet 
cannot be made our proper and primary motives for 
such acts and determinations, without destroying or 
entirely altering the distinct nature and character of 
the latter. S-ophron is well informed that wealth 
and extensive patronage will be the consequence of 
his obtaining the love and esteem of Constantia. But 
if the foreknowledge of this consequeuce were, and 
were found out to be, Sophron's main and determining 
motive for seeking this love and esteem ; and if 
Constantia were a woman that merited, or was capa- 
ble of feeling, either the one or the other ; would not 
Sophron find (and deservedly too) aversion and con- 
tempt in their stead ? Wherein, if not in this, differs 
the friendship of worldlings from true friendship ? 
Without kind offices and useful services, wherever 
the power and opportunity occur, love would be a 



38 AJDS TO REFLECTION. 

hollow pretence. Yet what noble mind would not 
be offended, if he were thought to value the love for 
the sake of the services, and not rather the services 
for the sake of the love ? 

APHORISM III. 

Though prudence in itself is neither virtue nor 
spiritual holiness, yet without prudence, or in oppo- 
sition to it, neither virtue nor holiness can exist. 

APHORISM IV. 

Art thou under the tyranny of sin — a slave to 
vicious habits — at enmity with God, and a skulking 
fugitive from thine own conscience? O, how idle 
the dispute, whether the listening to the dictates of 
prudence from prudential and self-interested motives 
be virtue or merit, when the not listening is guilt, 
misery, madness, and despair ! The best, the most 
Christian-like, pity thou canst show, is to take pity 
on thy own soul. The best and most acceptable 
service thou canst render, is to do justice and show 
mercy to thyself. 



39 



MOEAL AND EELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 
APHORISM I. 

LEIGHTON. 

What the Apostles were in an extraordinary way, 
befitting the first annunciation of a religion for all man- 
kind, this all teachers of moral truth, who aim to 
prepare for its reception by calling the attention of 
men to the law in their own hearts, may, without 
presumption, consider themselves to be under ordinary 
gifts and circumstances : namely, ambassadors for the 
greatest of kings, and upon no mean employment, the 
great treaty of peace and reconcilement betwixt him 
and mankind. 

APHORISM II. 

OF THE FEELINGS NATURAL TO INGENUOUS MINDS TOWARDS 
THOSE WHO HATE FIRST LED THEM TO REFLECT. 

LEIGHTON. 

Though divine truths are to be received equally from 
every minister alike, yet it must be acknowledged 
that there is something (we know not what to call it) 
of a more acceptable reception of those which at first 
were the means of bringing men to God, than of 
others ; like the opinion some have of physicians, 
whom they love. 

APHORISM III. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

The worth and value of knowledge is in proportion 
to the worth and value of its object. What, then, is 
the best knowledge ? 

The exactest knowledge of things is, to know them 



40 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

in their causes ; it is then an excellent thing, and 
worthy of their endeavours who are most desirous of 
knowledge, to know the best things in their highest 
causes ; and the happiest way of attaining to this 
knowledge is, to possess those things, and to know 
them in experience. 

APHORISM IV. 

LEIQHTON. 

It is one main point of happiness, that he that is 
happy doth know and judge himself to be so. This 
being the peculiar good of a reasonable creature, it is 
to be enjoyed in a reasonable way. It is not as the 
dull resting of a stone, or any other natural body in 
its natural place ; but the knowledge and considera- 
tion of it is the fruition of it, the very relishing and 
tasting of its sweetness. 

REMARK. 

As in a Christian land we receive the lessons of 
morality in connexion with the doctrines of revealed 
religion, we cannot too early free the mind from pre- 
judices widely spread, in part through the abuse, but 
far more from ignorance, of the true meaning of doc- 
trinal terms, which, however they may have been 
perverted to the purposes of fanaticism, are not only 
Scriptural, but of too frequent occurrence in Scripture 
to be overlooked or passed by in silence. The fol- 
lowing extract, therefore, deserves attention, as clear- 
ing the doctrine of salvation, in connexion with the 
divine foreknowledge, from all objections on the 
score of morality, by the just and impressive view 
which the Archbishop here gives of those occasional 
revolutionary moments, that turn of the tide in the 
mind and character of certain individuals, which 



MOEAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS, 41 

(taking a religious course, and referred immediately 
to the Author of all good) were in his day, more 
generally than at present, entitled Effectual Calling. 
The theological interpretation and the philosophic 
validity of this Apostolic triad, election, salvation, 
and effectual calling, (the latter being the interme- 
diate,) will he found among the comments on the 
Aphorisms of spiritual import. For my present pur- 
pose it will he sufficient if only I prove that the 
doctrines are in themselves innocuous, and may be 
both holden and taught without any practical ill 
consequences, and without detriment to the moral 
frame. 



APHORISM V. 

LEIGIITON. 

Two links of the chain (namely, Election and Sal- 
vation) are up in heaven in God's own hand ; but 
this middle one (that is, Effectual Calling) is let down 
to earth, into the hearts of his children, and they lay- 
ing hold on it have sure hold on the other two : for 
no power can sever them. If, therefore, they can read 
the characters of God's image in their own souls, those 
are the counterpart of the golden characters of his 
love, in which their names are written in the book of 
life. Their believing writes their names under the 
promises of the revealed book of life (the Scriptures) 
and thus ascertains them, that the same names are in 
the secret book of life which God hath by himself 
from eternity. So that finding the stream of grace 
in their hearts, though they see not the fountain 
whence it flows, nor the ocean into which it returns, 
yet they know that it hath its source in their eternal 
election, and shall empty itself into the ocean of their 
eternal salvation. 

If Election, Effectual Calling, and Salvation, bo 



42 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

inseparably linked together, then, by any one of them 
a man may lay hold upon all the rest, and may know 
that his hold is sure ; and this is the way wherein we 
may attain, and ought to seek, the comfortable as- 
surance of the love of God. Therefore, make your 
calling sure, and by that your election ; for that be- 
ing done, this follows of itself. We are not to pry 
immediately into the decree, but to read it in the per- 
formance. Though the mariner sees not the pole-star, 
yet the needle of the compass winch points to it, tells 
him which way he sails : thus the heart that is touched 
with the loadstone of divine love, trembling with godly 
fear, and yet still looking towards God by fixed be 
lieving, interprets the fear by the love in the fear, and 
tells the soul that its course is heavenward, towards 
the haven of eternal rest. He that loves, may be 
sure he was loved first ; and he that chooses God for 
his delight and portion, may conclude confidently, 
that God hath chosen him to be one of those that 
shall enjoy him, and be happy in him for ever : for 
that our love and electing of him is but the return 
and repercussion of the beams of his love shining 
upon us. 

Although from present unsanctification, a man can- 
not infer that he is not elected ; for the decree may, 
for part of a man's life, run (as it were) underground ; 
yet this is sure, that that estate leads to death, and 
unless it be broken, will prove the black line of repro- 
bation. A man hath no portion amongst the children 
of God, nor can read one word of comfort in all the 
promises that belong to them, while he remains un- 
holy. 



In addition to the preceding, I select the following 
paragraphs, as having no where seen the terms, Spirit, 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 43 

the Gifts of the Spirit, and the like, so effectually vin- 
dicated from the sneers of the sciolist on the one hand, 
and protected from the perversions of the fanatic on 
the other. In these paragraphs the Archbishop at 
once shatters and precipitates the only drawbridge 
between the fanatical and the orthodox doctrine of 
grace, and the gifts of the Spirit. In Scripture the 
term Spirit, as a power or property seated in the 
human soul, never stands singly, but is always speci- 
fied by a genitive case following ; this being a He- 
braism instead of the adjective which the writer would 
have used if he had thought, as well as written, in 
Greek. It is the spirit of meekness (a meek spirit), 
or the spirit of chastity, and the like. The moral 
result, the specific form and character in which the 
Spirit manifests its presence, is the only sure pledge 
and token of its presence ; which is to be, and which 
safely may be, inferred from its practical effects, but 
of which an immediate knowledge or consciousness 
is impossible ; and every pretence to such knowledge 
is either hypocrisy or fanatical delusion. 

APHORISM VI. 

LEIGHTOX. 

If any pretend that they have the Spirit, and so 
turn away from the straight rule of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, they have a spirit indeed, but it is a fanatical 
spirit, the spirit of delusion and giddiness : but the 
Spirit of God, that leads his children in the way of 
truth, and is for that purpose sent them from heaven 
to guide them thither, squares their thoughts and ways 
to that rule whereof it is author, and that word which 
was inspired by it, and sanctifies them to obedience. 
He that saith, I hioiv him, and Jceepeih not his com- 
mandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 
'J John ii. 4.) 



44 AIDS TO REFLECTION 

Now this Spirit which saiictifieth, and sanctifieth 
to obedience, is within us the evidence of our election, 
and the earnest of our salvation. And whoso are not 
sanctified and led by this Spirit, the Apostle tells us 
what is their condition : // any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.* The stones 
which are appointed for that glorious temple above, 
are hewn, and polished, and prepared for it here ; as 
the stones were wrought and prepared in the moun- 
tains, for building the temple at Jerusalem. 

COMMENT. 

There are many serious and sincere Christians who 
have not attained to a fulness of knowledge and in- 
sight, but are w r ell and judiciously employed in pre- 
paring for it. Even these may study the master- works 
of our elder divines with safety and advantage, if they 
will accustom themselves to translate the theological 
terms into their moral equivalents ; saying to them- 
selves — This may not be all that is meant, but this 
is meant, and it is that portion of the meaning, which 
belongs to me in the present stage of my progress. 
For example : render the words, sanctification of 
the Spirit, or the sanctifying influences of the Spirit 
by purity in life and action from a pure principle. 

He needs only reflect on his own experience to be 
convinced, that the man makes the motive, and not 
the motive the man. What is a strong motive to one 
man, is no motive at all to another. If, then, the 
man determines the motive, what determines the 
man — to a good and worthy act, we will say, or a 
virtuous course of conduct ? The intelligent will, or 
the self-determining power ? True, in part it is ; 
and therefore the will is, pre eminently, the spiritual 

Mom. viii. 9. — Ed. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 45 

constituent in our being. But will any reflecting man 
admit, that bis own will is the only and sufficient de- 
terminant of all he is, and all he does ? Is nothing to 
be attributed to the harmony of the system to which 
he belongs, and to the pre-established fitness of the 
objects and agents, known and unknown, that sur- 
round him, as acting on the will, though, doubtless, 
with it likewise ? — a process, which the co-instanta- 
neous yet reciprocal action of the air and the vital 
energy of the lungs in breathing, may help to render 
intelligible. 

Again : in the world we see everywhere evidences 
of a unity, which the component parts are so far from 
explaining, that they necessarily pre-suppose it as the 
cause and condition of their existing as those parts ; 
or even of their existing at all. This antecedent 
unity, or cause and principle of each union, it has 
since the time of Bacon and Kepler been customary 
to call a law r . This crocus, for instance, or any other 
flower, the reader may have in sight, or choose to 
bring before his fancy. That the root, stem, leaves, 
petals, &c. cohere to one plant, is owing to an ante- 
cedent power or principle in the seed, which existed 
before a single particle of the matters that constitute 
the size and visibility of the crocus, had been attracted 
from the surrounding soil, air, and moisture. Shall 
we turn to the seed ? Here too the same necessity 
meets us. An antecedent unity — (I speak not of the 
parent plant, but of an agency antecedent in the 
order of operance, yet remaining present as the con- 
servative and reproductive power) — must here too be 
supposed. Analyse the seed with the finest tools, 
and let the solar microscope come in aid of your 
senses, — what do you find ? Means and instruments, 
a wonderous fairy tale of nature, magazines of food, 
s tores of various sorts, pipes, spiracles, defences — a 



46 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

house of many chambers, and the owner and inhabi- 
tant invisible ! Reflect further on the countless mil- 
lions of seeds of the same name, each more than 
numerically differenced from exeyy other : and farther 
yet, reflect on the requisite harmony of ail surround- 
ing things, each of which necessitates the same pro- 
cess of thought, and the coherence of all of which to 
a system, a world, demands its own adequate ante- 
cedent unity, which must therefore of necessity be 
present to all and in all, yet in no wise excluding or 
suspending the individual law or principle of union 
in each. Xow, will reason, will common sense, en- 
dure the assumption, that it is highly reasonable to 
believe a universal power, as the cause and pre-con- 
dition of the harmony of all particular wholes, each 
of which involves the working principle of its own 
union — that it is reasonable, I say, to believe this 
respecting the aggregate of objects, which, without a 
subject, (that is, a sentient and intelligent existence) 
would be purposeless ; and yet unreasonable and even 
superstitious or enthusiastic to entertain a similar 
belief in relation to the system of intelligent and self- 
conscious beings, to the moral and personal work] ? 
But if in this too, in the great community of persons, 
it is rational to infer a one universal presence, a one 
present to all and in all, is it not most irrational to 
suppose that a finite will can exclude it ? 

Whenever, therefore, the man is determined (that 
is, impelled and directed) to act in harmony of inter- 
communion, must not something be attributed to this 
all-present power as acting in the will ? And by what 
fitter names can we call this than the law, as em- 
powering; the word, as informing ; and the spirit, 
as actuating ? 

What has been here said amounts, I am aware, 
only to a negative conception ; but this is all that is 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 47 

required for a mind at that period of its growth which 
we are now supposing, and as long as religion is con- 
templated under the form of morality. A positive in- 
sight belongs to a more advanced stage : for spiritual 
truths can only spiritually be discerned. This we 
know from revelation, and (the existeuce of spiritual 
truths being granted) philosophy is compelled to draw 
the same conclusion. But though merely negative, 
it is sufficient to render the union of religion and mo- 
rality conceivable; sufficient to satisfy an unprejudiced 
inquirer, that the spiritual doctrines of the Christian 
religion are not at war with the reasoning faculty, 
and that if they do not run on the same line, or radius. 
with the understanding, yet neither do they cut or 
cross it. It is sufficient, in short, to prove, that some 
distinct and consistent meaning may be attached to 
the assertion of the learned and philosophic Apostle, 
that the Spirit bearetk witness with our spirit,* that 
is. with the will, as the supernatural in man and the 
principle of our personality — of that I mean, by which 
we are responsible agents ; persons, and not merely 
living things.f 

It will suffice to satisfy a reflecting mind, that even 
at the porch and threshold of revealed truth there is 
a great and worthy' sense in which we may believe 

* Rom. viii. 16. — Ed. 

f Whatever is comprised in the chain and mechanism of 
cause and effect, of course necessitated, and having its neces- 
sity in some other thing, antecedent or concurrent — this is 
said to be natural : and the aggregate and system of all such 
things is Nature. It is, therefore, a contradiction in terms 
to include in this the free-will, of which the verbal definition 
is — that which originates an act or state of being. In this 
sense, therefore, vrhich is the sense of St. Paul, and indeed 
of the New Testament throughout, spiritual and supernatural 
are smonvmous. 



48 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the Apostle s assurance, that not only doth the Spirit 
help our infirmities ;* that is, act on the will by a pre- 
disposing influence from without, as it were, though 
in a spiritual manner, and without suspending or 
destroying its freedom — (the possibility of which is 
proved to us in the influences of education, providen 
tial occurrences, and, above all, of example) — but that 
in regenerate souls it may act in the will ; that unit 
ing and becoming one \ with our will or spirit it may 
make intercession for us :! nay, in this intimate 
union taking upon itself the form of our infirmities, 
may intercede for us with groanings that cannot he 
utterecl.% Nor is there any danger of fanaticism 
or enthusiasm as the consequence of such a belief, if 
only the attention be carefully and earnestly drawn to 
the concluding words of the sentence ; if only the 
due force and the full import be given to the term 
unutterable or incommunicable, — aXaXrjTois — in St. 
Paul's use of it. In this the strictest and most 
proper use of the term, it signifies, that the subject, 
of which it is predicated, is something which I cannot, 
which from the nature of the thing it is impossible 
that I should, communicate to any human mind (even 
of a person under the same conditions with myself) so 
as to make it in itself the object of his direct and 
immediate consciousness. It cannot be the object of 
my own direct and immediate consciousness ; but must 

* Bom. viii. 26.— Ed. 

+ Some distant and faint similitude of this, that merely au 
tt similitude may be innocently used to quiet the fancy, pro 
vided it be not imposed on the understanding as an analogous 
fact, or as identical in kind, is presented to us in the power 
of the magnet to awaken and strengthen the magnetic power 
in a bar of iron, and (in the instance of the compound magnet) 
of its acting in and with the latter. 

J Rom. viii. 26.— Ed. § Ibid. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHOBISMS. 49 

be inferred. Inferred it may be from its workings ; 
it cannot be perceived in them. And thanks to God ! 
in all points in which the knowledge is of high and 
necessary concern to our moral and relig:'ous welfare, 
from the effects it may safely be inferred by us, from 
the workings it may be assuredly known ; and the 
Scriptures furnish the clear and unfailing rules for 
directing the inquiry, and for drawing the conclusion. 

If any reflecting mind be surprised that the aids of 
the Divine Spirit should be deeper than our conscious 
ness <"au reach, it must arise from the not having at- 
tended sufficiently to the nature and necessary limits 
of human consciousness. For the same impossibility 
exists as to the first acts and movements of our own 
will; — the farthest distance our recollection can follow 
back the traces never leads us to the first foot-mark ; 
the lowest depth that the light of our consciousness 
cau visit even with a doubtful glimmering, is still at 
an unknown distance from the ground : and so, indeed, 
must it be with all truths, and all modes of being, that 
can neither be counted, coloured, nor delineated. Be- 
fore and after, when applied to such subjects, are but 
allegories, which the sense or imagination supplies 
to the understanding. The position of the Anstote- 
leans, nihil in intellectu quod non prim in sensu, on 
which Locke's Essay is grounded, is irrefragable : 
Locke erred only in taking half the truth for a whole 
truth. Conception is consequent on perception. What 
we cannot imagine, we cannot, in the proper sense of 
the word, conceive. 

I have already given one definition of Nature. 
Another, and differing from the former in words only, 
is this : Whatever is representable in the forms of 
time and space, is Nature. But whatever is compre- 
hended in time and space, is included inthe mechanism 
of cause and effect And conversely, whatever, by 

B 



50 AIDS TO REFLECTION, 

whatever means, has its principle in itself, so far aa 
to originate its actions, cannot be contemplated in any 
of the forms of space and time ; it must, therefore, be 
considered as spirit or spiritual by a mind in that 
stage of its development which Is here supposed, and 
which we have agreed to understand under the name 
of morality or the moral state : for in this stage we are 
concerned only with the forming of negative concep- 
tions, negative convictions ; and by spiritual I do not 
pretend to determine what the will is, but what it is 
not — namely that it is not nature. And as no man 
who admits a will at all, (for we may safely presume 
that no man, not meaning to speak figuratively, would 
call the shifting current of a stream the will* of the 
river), can suppose it below nature, we may safely 
add, that it is supernatural ; and this without the least 
pretence to any positive notion or insight. 

Now Morality accompanied with convictions like 
these, I have ventured to call Religious Morality. Of 
the importance I attach to the state of mind implied 
in these convictions, for its own sake, and as the na- 
tural preparation for a yet higher state and a more 
substantive knowledge, proof more than sufficient, 
perhaps, has been given in the length and minuteness 
of this introductory discussion, and in the foreseen 
risk which I run of exposing the Volume at large tc 
the censure which every work, or rather which every 
writer, must be prepared to undergo, who, treating of 
subjects that cannot be seen, touched, or in any other 
way made matters of outward sense, is yet anxious to 

* " The river glideth at his own sweet will." 
IVordsivorth's exquisite Sonnet on Westminster-bridge at sunrise. 
But who does not see that here the poetic charm arises 
from the known and felt impropriety of the expression, in 
*he technical sense of the word, impropriety, among gram- 
marians ? 



MOIiAT, AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 51 

convey a distinct meaning by the words he makes use 
of — the censure of being dry, abstract, and — (of all 
qualities most scaring and opprobrious to the ears of 
the present generation) — metaphysical : though how 
it is possible that a work not physical, that is, em- 
ployed on objects known or believed on the evidence 
of senses, should be other than metaphysical, that is, 
treating on subjects, the evidence of which is not 
derived from the senses, is a problem which critics 
of this order find it convenient to leave unsolved. 

I shall, indeed, have reason to think myself fortunate,, 
if this be all the charge. How many smart quotations, 
which (duly cemented by personal allusions to the 
author's supposed pursuits, attachments, and infir- 
mities), would of themselves make up a review of this 
Volume, might be supplied from the works of Butler, 
Swift, and Warburton ! For instance: " It may not 
be amiss to inform the public, that the compiler of the 
Aids to Reflection, and commenter on a Scotch Bishop's 
Platonico-Calvinistic commentary on St. Peter, be- 
longs to the sect of the iEolists, whose fruitful imagi- 
nations led them into certain notions, which although 
in appearance very unaccountable, are not without 
their mysteries and their meanings : furnishing plenty 
of matter for such, whose converting imaginations dis- 
pose them to reduce all things into types ; who can 
make shadows, no thanks to the sun ; and then mould 
them into substances, no thanks to philosophy ; whose 
peculiar talent lies in fixing tropes and allegories to 
the letter, and refining what is literal into figure and 
mystery. 

And would it were my lot to meet with a critic, 
who, in the might of his own convictions, and with 
arms of equal point and efficiency from his own forge, 
would come forth as my assailant ; or who, as a friend 
to my purpose, would set forth the objections to the 

e2 



52 At^S TO REFLECTION. 

matter and pervading spirit of these Aphorisms, and 
the accompanying elucidations. Were it my task to 
form the mind of a young man of talent, desirous to 
establish his belief on solid principles, and in the light 
of distinct understanding, I would commence his 
theological studies, or, at least, that most important 
part of them respecting the aid which religion pro- 
mises in our attempts to realise the ideas of morality, 
by bringing together all the passages scattered 
throughout the writings of Swift and Butler, that 
bear on enthusiasm, spiritual operations, and pretences 
to the gifts of the Spirit, with the whole train of new 
lights, raptures, experiences, and the like. For all 
that the richest wit, in intimate union with profound 
sense and steady observation, can supply on these 
topics, is to be found in the works of these satirists ; 
though unhappily alloyed with much that can only 
tend to pollute the imagination. 

Without stopping to estimate the degree of carica- 
ture in the portraits sketched by these bold masters, 
and without attempting to determine in how many of 
the enthusiasts brought forward by them in proof of 
the influence of false doctrines, a constitutional in- 
sanity, that would probably have shown itself in some 
other form, would be the truer solution, I would direct 
my pupil's attention to one feature common to the 
whole group — the pretence, namely, of possessing, or 
a belief and expectation grounded on other men's as- 
surances of their possessing, an immediate conscious- 
ness, a sensible experience, of the Spirit in and during 
its operation on the soul. It is not enough that you 
grant them a consciousness of the gifts and graces in- 
fused, or an assurance of the spiritual origin of the 
same, grounded on their correspondence to the Scrip- 
ture promises, and their conformity with the idea 
of the divine Giver. No • they all alike, it will 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 53 

be found, lay claim, or at least look forward, to an 
inward perception of the Spirit itself and of its 
operating. 

Whatever must be misrepresented in order to be 
ridiculed, is in fact not ridiculed ; but the thing sub- 
stituted for it. It is a satire on something else, coupled 
with a lie on the part of the satirist, who knowing, or 
having the means of knowing the truth, chose to call 
one thing by the name of another. The pretensions to 
the supernatural, pilloried by Butler, sent to Bedlam 
by Swift, and (on their re-appearance in public) gib- 
betted by Warburton, and anatomised by Bishop 
Lavington,* one and all, have this for their essential 
character, that the Spirit is made the immediate object 
of sense or sensation. Whether the spiritual presence 
and agency are supposed cognisable by indescribable 
feeling or unimaginable vision by some specific visual 
energy ; whether seen or heard, or touched, smelt, 
and tasted — for in those vast store-houses of fana- 
tical assertion, — the volumes of ecclesiastical history 
and religious auto-biography, — instances are not 
wanting even of the three latter extravagancies; 
— this variety in the mode may render the several 
pretensions more or less offensive to the taste ; but 
with the same absurdity for the reason, this being de- 
rived from a contradiction in terms common and radi- 
cal to them all alike, — the assumption of a something 
essentially supersensual, which is nevertheless the 
object of sense, that is not supersensual. 

Well then ! — for let me be allowed still to suppose 
the Reader present to me, and that I am addressing 
1 im in the character of companion and guide — the 
rositions recommended for your examination not only 

* " A Comparison between the enthusiasm of Methodists 
and of rapists."— J5VZ. 



54 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

do not involve, but exclude, this inconsistency. And 
for aught that hitherto appears, we may see with com 
placency the arrows of satire feathered with wit. 
weighted with sense, and discharged by a strong arm, 
fly home to their mark. Our conceptions of a pos- 
sible spiritual communion, though they are but nega- 
tive, and only preparatory to a faith in its actual 
existence, stand neither in the level nor the direction 
of the shafts. 

If it be objected, that Swift and Warburton did not 
choose openly to set up the interpretations of later 
and more rational divines against the decisions of their 
own Church, and from prudential considerations did 
not attack the doctrine in toto : that is their concern 
(T would answer), and it is more charitable to think 
otherwise. But we are in the silent school of reflec- 
tion, in the secret confessional of thought. Should 
we lie j or God, and that to our own thoughts? — 
They, indeed, who dare do the one, will soon be able 
to do the other. So did the comforters of Job: and 
to the divines, who resemble Job's comforters, we will 
leave both attempts. 

But, it may be said, a possible conception is not 
necessarily a true one ; nor even a probable one, 
where the facts can be otherwise explained. In the 
name of the supposed pupil I would reply — That is 
the very question I am preparing myself to examine; 
and am now seeking the vantage ground W 7 here I may 
best command the facts. In my own person, I w r ould 
ask the objector, whether he counted the declarations 
of Scripture among the facts to be explained. But 
both for myself and my pupil, and in behalf of all 
rational inquiry, I w 7 ould demand that the decision 
should not be such, in itself or in its effects, as would 
prevent our becoming acquainted with the most im- 
portant of these facts; nay, such as would for the 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 55 

mind of the decider, preclude their very existence 
Unless ye believe, says the prophet, ye cannot under- 
stand. Suppose (what is at least possible) that the 
facts should be consequent on the belief, it is clear 
that without the belief the materials, on which the 
understanding is to exert itself, would be wanting. 

The reflections that naturally arise out of this last 
remark, are those that best suit the stage at which we 
last halted, and from which we now recommence our 
progress — the state of a moral man, who has already 
welcomed certain truths of religion, and is inquiring 
after other and more special doctrines : still, however, 
as a moralist, desirous, indeed, to receive them into 
combination with morality, but to receive them as its 
aid, not as its substitute. Now, to such a man I 
6ay ; — Before you reject the opinions and doctrines 
asserted and enforced in the following extract from 
Leigh ton, and before you give way to the emotions of 
distaste or ridicule, which the prejudices of the circle 
in which you move, or your own familiarity with the 
mad perversions of the doctrine by fanatics in all 
ages, have connected with the very words, spirit, 
grace, gifts, operations, and the like, re-examine the 
arguments advanced in the first pages of this intro- 
ductory comment, and the simple and sober view of 
the doctrine, contemplated in the first instance as a 
mere idea of the reason, flowing naturally from the 
admission of an infinite omnipresent mind as the 
ground of the universe. Reflect again and again, 
and be sure that you understand the doctrine before 
you determine on rejecting it. That no false judg- 
ments, not extravagant conceits, no practical ill-conse- 
quences need arise out of the belief of the Spirit, and 
its possible communion with the spiritual principle 
in man, or can arise out of the right belief, or ere 
compatible with the doctrine truly and Scripturally 



56 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

explained, Leighton, and almost every single period in 
the passage here transcribed from him, will suffice to 
convince you. 

On the other hand, reflect on the consequences of 
rejecting it. For surely it is not the act of a reflect- 
ing mind, nor the part of a man of sense, to disown 
and cast out one tenet, and yet persevere in admitting 
and clinging to another that has neither sense nor 
purpose, but what supposes and rests on the truth 
and reality of the former. If you have resolved that 
all belief of a divine Comforter present to our inmost 
being and aiding our infirmities, is fond and fanati- 
cal, — if the Scriptures promising and asserting such 
communion are to be explained away into the action 
of circumstances, and the necessary movements of 
the vast machine, in one of the circulating chains of 
which the human will is a petty link ; — in what bet- 
ter light can prayer appear to you, than the groans 
of a wounded lion in his solitary den, or the howl of 
a dog with his eyes on the moon ? At the best, you 
can regard it only as a transient bewilderment of the 
social instinct, as a social habit misapplied. Unless 
indeed you should adopt the theory which I remem- 
ber to have read in the writings of the late Bishop 
Jebb, and for some supposed beneficial re-action of 
praying on the prayer's own mind, should practise it 
as a species of animal-magnetism to be brought about 
by a wilful eclipse of the reason, and a temporary 
make-believe on the part of the self-magnetiser ! 

At all events, do not pre-judge a doctrine, the uttei 
rejection of which must oppose a formidable obstacle 
to your acceptance of Christianity itself, when the 
books, from which alone we can learn what Chris 
tianity is and what it teaches, are so strangely written, 
that in a series of the most concerning points, inclu- 
ding (historical facts exceptod) all the peculiar tenets 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 5* 

of the religion, the plain and obvious meaning of th© 
words, that in which they were understood by learned 
and simple, for at least sixteen centuries, during the 
larger part of which the language was a living lan- 
guage, is no sufficient guide to their actual sense or 
to the writer's own meaning ! And this too, where 
the literal and received sense involves nothing impos- 
sible, or immoral, or contrary to reason. With such 
a persuasion, Deism would be a more consistent creed. 
But, alas ! even this will fail you. The utter rejec- 
tion of all present and living communion with the uni- 
versal Spirit impoverishes Deism itself, and renders it 
as cheerless as Atheism, from which indeed it would 
differ only by an obscure impersonation of what the 
atheist receives unpersonified under the name of Fate 
or Nature. 

APHORISM VII. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

The proper and natural effect, and in the absence of 
all disturbing or intercepting forces, the certain and 
sensible accompaniment of peace or reconcilement 
with God, is our own inward peace, a calm and quiet 
temper of mind. And where there is a consciousness 
of earnestly desiring, and of having sincerely striven 
after the former, the latter may be considered as a 
sense of its presence. In this case, I say, and for 
a soul watchful and under the discipline of the Gospel, 
the peace with a man's self may be the medium or 
organ through which the assurance of his peace with' 
God is conveyed. We will not therefore condemn 
this mode of speaking, though we dare not greatly 
recommend it. Be it, that there is, truly and in 
sobriety of speech, enough of just analogy in the sub- 
jects meant, to make this use of the words, if less 
than proper, yet something more than metaphorical ; 



58 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

still \vc must be cautious not to transfer to the object 
the defects or the deficiency of the organ, which must 
needs partake of the imperfections of the imperfect 
beings to whom it belongs. Not without the co-as- 
surance of other senses and of the same sense in 
other men, dare we affirm that what our eye beholds 
is verily there to be beholden. Much less may we 
conclude negatively, and from the inadequacy, or the 
suspension, or from any other affection of sight infer 
the non-existence, or departure, or changes of the 
thing itself. The chameleon darkens in the shade of 
him that bends over it to ascertain its colours. In 
like manner, but with yet greater caution, ought we 
to think respecting a tranquil habit of the inward 
life, considered as a spiritual sense, — a medial organ 
in and by which our peace with God, and the lively 
working of his grace on our spirit, are perceived by 
us. This peace which we have with God in Christ 
is inviolable ; but because the sense and persuasion 
of it may be interrupted, the soul that is truly at 
peace with God may for a time be disquieted in itself, 
through weakness of faith, or the strength of temp 
tation, or the darkness of desertion, losing sight of 
that grace, that love and light of God's countenance, 
on which its tranquillity and joy depend. Thou didst 
hide thy face, saith David, and I was troubled 
But when these eclipses are over, the soul is revived 
with new consolation, as the face of the earth is 
renewed and made to smile with the return of the 
sun in the spring ; and this ought always to uphold 
Christians in the saddest times, namely, that the 
grace and love of God towards them depend not on 
their sense, nor upon any thing in them, but is still 
in itself, incapable of the smallest alteration. 

A holy heart that gladly entertains grace, shall 
find that it and peace cannot dwell asunder ; while 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 59 

an ungodly man may sleep to death in the lethargy 
of carnal presumption and impeniteney ; but a true, 
lively, solid peace, he cannot have. There is no 
peace, saith my God, to the wicked Isa. lvii. 21 

APHORISM VIII. 

WORLDLY HOPES. 

LEIGHTON. 

Worldly hopes are not living, but lying hopes ; 
they die often before us, and we live to bury them, 
and see our own folly and infelicity in trusting to 
them ; but at the utmost, they die with us when we 
die, and can accompany us no further. But the 
lively hope, which is the Christian's portion, answers 
expectation to the full, and much beyond it, and 
deceives no way but in that happy way of far exceed- 
ing it. 

A living hope, living in death itself ! The world 
dares say no more for its device, than Bum spiro 
spero : but the children of God can add, by virtue of 
this living hope, Bum exspiro spero. 

APHORISM IX. 

THE WORLDLING'S FEAR. 

LEIGHTON. 

It is a fearful thing when a man and all his hopes 
die together. Thus saith Solomon of the wicked, 
Prov. xi. 7 — When he dieth, then die his hopes ; 
(many of them before, but at the utmost then, all of 
them ;) but the righteous hath hope in his death. 
Prov. xiv. 32.* 

* One of the numerous proofs against those who with a 
strange inconsistency hold the Old Testament to have been 
inspired throughout, and yet deny that the doctrine of 
future state is taught therein. 



60 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM X. 

WORLDLY MIRTH. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, 
and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth 
songs to a heavy heart. Pro v. xxv. 20. Worldly 
mirth is so far from curing spiritual grief, that eveu 
worldly grief, where it is great and takes deep root, 
is not allayed but increased by it. A man who is full 
of inward heaviness, the more he is encompassed 
about with mirth, it exasperates and enrages his grief 
the more ; like ineffectual weak physic, which removes 
not the humour, but stirs it and makes it more un- 
quiet. But spiritual joy is seasonable for all estates ; 
in prosperity, it is pertinent to crown and sanctify all 
other enjoyments, with this which so far surpasses 
them ; and in distress, it is the only Nepenthe, the 
cordial of fainting spirits : so Psal. iv. 7, He hath 
put joy into my heart. This mirth makes way for 
itself, which other mirth cannot do. These songs 
are sweetest in the night of distress. 

There is something exquisitely beautiful and touch- 
ing in the first of these similies : and the second, 
though less pleasing to the imagination, has the charm 
of propriety, and expresses the transition with equal 
force and liveliness. A grief of recent birth is a sick 
infant that must have its medicine administered in 
its milk, and sad thoughts are the sorrowful heart's 
natural food. This is a complaint that is not to be 
cured by opposites, which for the most part only 
reverse the symptoms while they exasperate the 
disease — or like a rock in the mid channel of a river 
swoln by a sudden rain-flush from the mountain, 
which only detains the excess of waters from their 
proper outlet, and makes them foam, roar, and eddy. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 61 

The soul in her desolation hugs the sorrow close to 
her, as her sole remaining garment : and this must 
he drawn off so gradually, and the garment to he put 
in its stead so gradually slipt on and feel so like the 
former, that the sufferer shall he sensible of the 
change only by the refreshment. The true spirit of 
consolation is well content to detain the tear in the 
eye, and finds a surer pledge of its success in the 
smile of resignation that dawns through that, than in 
the liveliest shows of a forced and alien exhilaration. 

APHORISM XI. 

Plotinus thanked God, that his soul was not tied 
\o an immortal body. 

APHORISM XII. 

1E1GHTON jLND COLERIDGE. 

What a full confession do we make of our dissatis- 
faction with the objects of our bodily senses, that in 
our attempts to express what we conceive the best of 
beings, and the greatest of felicities to be, we de- 
scribe by the exact contraries of all that we experi- 
ence here— the one as infinite, incomprehensible, 
immutable ; the other as incorruptible, undefiled, 
and that passeth not away. At all events, this co- 
incidence, say rather, identity of attributes, is suffi- 
cient to apprise us, that to be inheritors of bliss, we 
must become the children of God. 

This remark of Leighton's is ingenious and start- 
ling. Another, and more fruitful, perhaps more solid, 
inference from the fact would be, that there is some- 
thing in the human mind which makes it know (as 
soon as it is sufficiently awakened to reflect on its 
own thoughts and notices), that in all finite quantity 
there is an infinite, in all measure of time an eternal ; 



!52 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

that the latter are the basis, the substance, the true 
and abiding reality of the former ; and that as we 
truly are, only as far as God is with us, so neither 
can we truly possess — that is, enjoy — our being or 
any other real good, but by living in the sense of his 
holy presence. 

A life of wickedness is a life of lies ; and an evil 
being, or the being of evil, the last and darkest 
mystery. 

APHORISM XIII. 

THE WISEST USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 

LEIGHTOK. 

It is not altogether unprofitable, — yea, it is great 
wisdom in Christians to be arming themselves against 
such temptations as may befall them hereafter, though 
they have not as yet met with them ; to labour to 
overcome them before-hand, to suppose the hardest 
things that may be incident to them, and to put on 
the strongest resolutions they can attain unto. Yet 
all that is but an imaginary effort ; and therefore there 
is no assurance that the victory is any more than 
imaginary too, till it come to action, and then, they 
that have spoken and thought very confidently, may 
prove but (as one said of the Athenians) fortes in 
tabula, patient and courageous in picture or fancy; 
and, notwithstanding all their arms, and dexterity in 
handling them by way of exercise, may be foully 
defeated when they are to fight in earnest. 

APHORISM XIY. 

THE LANGUAGE OP SCRIPTURE. 

The word of God speaks to men, and therefore it 
speaks the language of the children of men. This 
just and pregnant thought was suggested to Leighton 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORIbMS. C3 

by Gen. xxii. 12. The same text has led me to 
unfold and expand the remark — On moral subjects, 
the Scriptures speak in the language of the affections 
which they excite in us; on sensible objects, neither 
metaphysically, as they are known by superior intel 
ligences ; nor theoretically, as they would be seen by 
us were we placed in the sun ; but as they are repre 
sented by our human senses in our present relative 
position. Lastly, from no vain, or worse than vain, 
ambition of seeming to walk on the sea of mystery 
in my way to truth, but in the hope of removing a 
difficulty that presses heavily on the minds of many 
who in heart and desire are believers, and which 
long pressed on my own mind, I venture to add : 
that on spiritual things, and allusively to the myste- 
rious union or conspiration of the divine with the 
human in the spirits of the just, spoken of in Horn. 
viii. 27, the word of God attributes the language of 
the spirit sanctified to the Holy One, the Sanctifier. 

Now the spirit in man (that is, the will) knows its 
own state in and by its acts alone : even as in geo- 
metrical reasoning the mind knows its constructive 
faculty in the act of constructing, and contemplates 
the act in the product (that is, the mental figure or 
diagram) which is inseparable from the act and co- 
instantaneous. 

Let the reader join these two positions : first, that 
the divine Spirit acting in the human will is described 
as one with the will so filled and actuated : secondly, 
that our actions are the means, by which alone the 
will becomes assured of its own state : and he will 
understand, though he may not perhaps adopt my 
suggestion, that the verse, in which God speaking of 
himself, says to Abraham, Now I know that thou 
fewest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, 
thy only son y from me — may be more than merely 



G4 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

figurative. An accommodation I grant: but in the 
thing expressed, and not altogether in the expres 
sions. In arguing with infidels, or with the weak in 
faith, it is a part of religious prudence, no less than 
of religious morality, to avoid whatever looks like an 
evasion. To retain the literal sense, wherever the 
harmony of Scripture permits, and reason does not 
forbid, is ever the honester, and, nine times in ten, 
the more rational and pregnant interpretation. The 
contrary plan is an easy and approved way of getting 
rid of a difficulty ; but nine times in ten a bad way 
of solving it. But alas ! there have been too many 
commentators who are content not to understand a 
text themselves, if only they can make the reader 
believe they do. 

Of the figures of speech in the sacred Volume, that 
are only figures of speech, the one of most frequent 
occurrence is that which describes an effect by the 
name of its most usual and best known cause : the pas- 
sages, for instance, in which grief, fury, repentance, 
and the like, are attributed to the Deity. But these 
are far enough from justifying the (I had almost said, 
dishonest) fashion of metaphorical glosses, in as well 
as out of the Church ; and which our fashionable divines 
have carried to such an extent, as in the doctrinal part 
of their creed, to leave little else but metaphors.* 

APHORISM XY. 

THE CHRISTIAN NO STOIC. 

LEIGHTOK AND OOLERIDGE. 

Seek not altogether to dry up the stream of sorrow 
but to bound it and keep it within its banks. Religion 
cloth not destroy the life of nature, but adds to it a 
life more excellent; yea, it doth not only permit, 

* See Lit. Remains, L p. Z2L— Ed. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. C5 

but requires some feeling of afflictions. Instead of 
patience, there is in some men an affected pride of 
spirit, suitable only to the doctrine of the Stoics as it 
is usually taken. They strive not to feel at all the 
afflictions that are on them ; but where there is no 
feeling at all, there can be no patience. 

Of the sects of ancient philosophy the Stoic is 
perhaps, the nearest to Christianity. Yet even to 
this sect Christianity is fundamentally opposite. For 
the Stoic attaches the highest honour (or rather, 
attaches honour solely) to the person that acts vir- 
tuously in spite of his feelings, or who has raised 
himself above the conflict by their extinction ; while 
Christianity instructs us to place small reliance on a 
virtue that does not begin by bringing the feelings to 
a conformity with the commands of the conscience. 
Its especial aim, its characteristic operation, is to 
moralize the affections. The feelings that oppose a 
right act must be wrong feelings. The act, indeed, 
whatever the agents feelings might be, Christianity 
would command : and under certain circumstances 
would both command and commend it — commend it, 
as a healthful symptom in a sick patient ; and com- 
mand it, as one of the ways and means of changing 
the feelings, or displacing them by calling up the 
opposite. 

COROLLARIES TO APHORISM XV. 

I. The more consciousness in our thoughts and 
words, and the less in our impulses and general 
actions, the better and more healthful the state both 
of head and heart. As the flowers from an orange 
tree in its time of blossoming, that burgeon forth, 
expand, fall, and are momently replaced, such is the 
sequence of hourly and momently charities in a pure 
and gracious soul. The modern fiction which depic- 



6(5 AIDS TO REFLECTION, 

tures the son of Cytherea with a bandage round his 
eyes, is not without a spiritual meaning. There is a 
sweet and holy blindness in Christian love even as 
there is a blindness of life, yea, and of genius too, in 
the moment of productive energy. 

II. Motives are symptoms of weakness, and sup- 
plements for the deficient energy of the living prin- 
ciple, the law within us. Let them then be reserved 
for those momentous acts and duties in which the 
strongest and best balanced natures must feel them- 
selves deficient, and where humility, no less than 
prudence, prescribes deliberation. We find a simi- 
litude of this, I had almost said a remote analogy, in 
organised bodies. The lowest class of animals or 
protozoa, the polypi for instance, have neither brain 
nor nerves. Their motive powers are all from without. 
The sun, light, the warmth, the air, are their nerves 
and brain. As life ascends, nerves appear; but- 
still only as the conductors of an external influence: 
next are seen the knots or ganglions, as so msiujfoci 
of instinctive agency, which imperfectly imitate the 
yet wanting centre. And now the promise and token 
of a true individuality are disclosed * both the reservoir 
of sensibility and the imitative power that actuates 
the organs of motion (the muscles) with the network 
of conductors, are all taken inward and appropriated ; 
the spontaneous rises into the voluntary, and finally 
after various steps and a long ascent, the material 
and animal means and conditions are prepared for the 
manifestations of a free will, having its law within 
itself and its motive in the law — and thus bound to 
originate its own acts, not only without, but even 
against, alien stimulants. That in our present state 
we have only the dawning of this inward sun (the 
perfect law of liberty) will sufficiently limit and 
qualify the preceding position, if only it have been 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 67 

allowed to produce its two-fold consequence — the 
excitement of hope and the repression of vanity.* 

APHORISM XYI. 

LE1GHTOS. 

As excessive eating or drinking both makes the 
body sickly and lazy, fit for nothing but sleep, and 
besots the mind, as it clogs up with crudities the way 
through which the spirits should pass,t bemiring 
them, and making them move heavily, as a coach in 
a deep way ; thus doth all immoderate use of the 
world and its delights wrong the soul in its spiritual 
condition, makes it sickly and feeble, full of spiritual 
distempers and inactivity, benumbs the graces of the 
Spirit, and fills the soul with sleepy vapours, makes 
it grow secure and heavy in spiritual exercises, and 
obstructs the way and motion of the Spirit of God, 
in the soul. Therefore, if you would be spiritual, 
healthful and vigorous, and enjoy much of the conso- 
lations of Heaven, be sparing and sober in those of 
the earth, and what you abate of the one, shall be 
certainly made up in the other. 

* The reader is referred, upon the subject of this remark- 
able paragraph, to Mr. Joseph Henry Green's Becapitulatory 
Lecture, p. 110, Vital Dynamics, 1840 ; — a volume of singular 
worth and importance. — Ed. 

f Technical phrases of an obsolete system will yet retain 
their places, nay, acquire universal currency, and become 
sterling in the language, when they at once represent the feel- 
ings, and give an apparent solution of them by visual images 
easily managed by the fancy. Such are many terms and 
phrases from the humoral physiology long exploded, but 
which are far more popular than any description would be 
from the theory that has taken its place. 



F2 



68 AIDS TO REFLECTION, 



APHORISM XVII. 

INCONSISTENCY. 

IEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

It is a most unseemly and unpleasant thing, to see 
a man's life full of ups and downs, one step like a 
Christian, and another like a worldling ; it cannot 
choose but both pain himself and mar the edification 
of others. 

The same sentiment, only with a special applica- 
tion to the maxims and measures of our cabinet states- 
men, has been finely expressed by a sage poet of the 
preceding generation, in lines which no generation 
will find inapplicable or superannuated. 

God and the world we worship both together, 

Draw not our laws to Him, but His to ours ; 
Untrue to both, so prosperous in neither, 

The imperfect will brings forth but barren flowers ! 
Unwise as all distracted interests be, 
Strangers to God, fools in humanity : 
Too good for great things, and too great for good, 
"While still "I dare not" waits upon " I wou'd." 



APHORISM XVII. CONTINUED. 

THE ORDINARY MOTIVE TO INCONSISTENCY. 

LEIGHTON. 

What though the polite man count thy fashion a 
little odd and too precise, it is because he knows 
nothing above that model of goodness which he hath 
set himself, and therefore approves of nothing beyond 
it : he knows not God, and therefore doth not discern 
and esteem what is most like Him. When courtiers 
come down into the country, the common home-bred 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 69 

people possibly think their habit strange ; but they 
care not for that, it is the fashion at court. What 
need, then, that Christians should be so tender-fore- 
headed, as to be put out of countenance because the 
world looks on holiness as a singularity; it is the only 
fashion in the highest court, yea, of the King of 
kings himself. 



APHORISM XVIII. 

SUPERFICIAL RECONCILIATIONS, AND SELF-DECEIT IN 
FORGIVING. 

LEIGHTON. 

"When, after variances, men are brought to an 
agreement, they are much subject to this, rather to 
cover their remaining malices with superficial verbal 
forgiveness, than to dislodge them and free the heart 
of them. This is a poor self-deceit. As the philoso- 
pher said to him, who being ashamed that he was 
espied by him in a tavern in the outer-room, with- 
drew himself to%the inner, " That is not the way out; 
the more you go that way, you will be the further 
in :" — so when hatreds are upon admonition not 
thrown out, but retire inward to hide themselves, 
they grow 7 deeper and stronger than before ; and those 
constrained semblances of reconcilement are but a 
false healing, do but skin the wound over, and there- 
fore it usually breaks forth worse again. 



APHORISM XIX. 

OF THE WORTH AND THE DUTIES OF THE PREACHER. 

LEIGHTON. 

The stream of custom and our profession bring us 
to the preaching of the Word, and we sit out our hour 
under the sound : but how few consider and prize it 



70 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

as the great ordinance of God for the salvation of 
souls, the beginner and the sustainer of the divine 
life of grace within us ! And certainly, until we have 
these thoughts of it, and seek to feel it thus ourselves, 
although we hear it most frequently, and let slip no 
occasion, yea, hear it with attention and some present 
delight, yet still we miss the right use of it, and turn 
it from its true end, while we take it not as that in- 
grafted ivord which is able to save our souls. (James 
i. 91.) 

Thus ought they who preach to speak the word ; 
to endeavour their utmost to accommodate it to this 
end, that sinners may be converted, begotten again, 
and believers nourished and strengthened in their 
spiritual life ; to regard no lower end, but aim steadily 
at that mark. Their hearts and tongues ought to 
be set on fire with holy zeal for God and love to 
souls, kindled by the Holy Ghost, that came down on 
the Apostles in the shape of fiery tongues. 

And those that hear should remember this as the 
end of their hearing, that they may receive spiritual 
life and strength by the word. For though it seems 
a poor despicable business, that a frail sinful man 
like yourselves should speak a few words in your 
hearing, yet, look upon it as the way wherein God 
communicates happiness to those who believe, and 
works that believing unto happiness, alters the whole 
frame of the soul, and makes a new creation as it 
begets it again to the inheritance of glory, — consider 
it thus, which is its true notion ; and then what can 
be so precious ? 

APHORISM XX. 

LSfitOHTON. 

The difference is great in our natural life, in some 
persons especially ; that they who in infancy were so 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 71 

feeble, and wrapped up as others in swaddling clothes, 
yet afterwards come to excel in wisdom and in the 
knowledge of sciences, or to be commanders of great 
armies, or to be kings : but the distance is far greater 
and more admirable betwixt the small beginnings 
of grace, and our after-perfection, that fulness of 
knowledge that we look for, and that crown of 
immortality, which all they are born to who are born 
to God. 

But as in the faces or actions of some children, 
characters and presages of their after-greatness have 
appeared — as a singular beauty in Moses' face, as 
they write of him, and as Cyrus was made king 
among the shepherds' children with whom he was 
brought up, — so also, certainly, in these children of 
God, there be some characters and evidences that 
they are born for Heaven by their new birth. That 
holiness and meekness, that patience and faith which 
shine in the actions and sufferings of the saints, are 
characters of their Father's image, and show their 
high original, and foretel their glory to come ; such a 
glory as doth not only surpass the world's thoughts, 
but the thoughts of the children of God themselves. 
1 John hi. 2. 



This Aphorism would, it may seem, have been, 
placed more fitly in the Chapter following. In 
placing it here, I have been determined by the foJ 
lowing convictions : 1. Every state, and consequently 
that which we have described as the state of religious 
morality, which is not progressive, is dead or retro- 
grade. 2. As a pledge of this progression, or, at 
least, as the form in which the propulsive tendency 
shows itself, there are certain hopes, aspirations, 
yearnings, that with more or less of consciousness 



VZ AIDS TO EEFLECTIOX. 

rise and stir in the heart of true morality as naturally 
as the sap in the full-formed stem of a rose flows 
towards the bud, within which the flower is maturing 
o. No one, whose own experience authorises him to 
confirm the truth of this statement, can have been 
conversant with the volumes of religious biography, 
can have perused for instance the lives of Cranmer, 
Ridley, Latimer, Wish art, Sir Thomas More, Bernard 
Gilpin, Bishop Bedel, or of Egede, Swartz, and the 
missionaries of the frozen world, without an occasional 
conviction, that these men lived under extraordinary 
influences, which in each instance and in all ages of 
the Christian sera, bear the same characters, and 
both in the acjjompaniments and the results evidently 
refer to a common origin. And what can this be ? is 
the question that must needs force itself on the mind 
in the first moment of reflection on a fact so interest- 
ing and apparently so anomalous. The answer is as 
necessarily contained in one or the other of two 
assumptions. These influences are either the product 
of delusion — insania amabilis, and the reaction of 
disordered nerves — or they argue the existence of a 
relation to some real agency, distinct from what i3 
experienced or acknowledged by the world at large 
for which as not merely natural on the one hand, 
and yet not assumed to be miraculous-'' on the 
other, w r e have no apter name than spiritual. 
Now, if neither analogy justifies, nor the moral 
feelings permit, the former assumption, and we 
decide therefore in favour of the reality of a state 
other and higher than the mere moral man, whose 

* In chock of fanatical pretensions, it is expedient to 
confine the term miraculous, to cases where the senses are 
appealed to, in proof of something that transcends the expe- 
rience derived from the senses. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 73 

religion * consists in morality, has attained under 
these convictions ; can the existence of a transitional 
state appear other than probable ; or that these very 
convictions, when accompanied by correspondent dis- 
positions and stirrings of the heart, are among the 
marks and indications of such a state ? And thinking 
it not unlikely that among the readers of this Volume, 
there may be found some individuals, whose inward 
state, though disquieted by doubts and oftener still 
perhaps by blank misgivings, may, nevertheless, be- 
token the commencement of a transition from a not 
irreligious morality to a spiritual religion, — with a 
view to their interests I placed this Aphorism under 
the present head. 



APHORISM XXI. 

LEIGHTOtf. 

The most approved teachers of wisdom, in a human 
way, have required of their scholars, that to the end 
their minds might be capable of it, they should be 
purified from vice and wickedness. And it was 
Socrates' custom, when any one asked him a question, 
seeking to be informed by him, before he would 
answer them, he asked them concerning their own 
qualities and course of life, 

* For let it not be forgotten, that Morality, as distinguished 
from Prudence, implying (it matters uot under what name, 
whether of honour, or duty, or conscience, still, I say, im- 
plying^ and being grounded id, an awe of the invisible and 
a confidence therein beyond (nay, occasionally in apparent 
contradiction to) the inductions of outward experience, ia 
essentially religious. 



74 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

APHORISM XXII. 

KNOWLEDGE NOT THE ULTIMATE END OF RELIGIOUS PURSUITS. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

The hearing and reading of the word, under which 
I comprise theological studies generally, are alike 
defective when pursued without increase of knowledge, 
and w r hen pursued chiefly for increase of know- 
ledge. To seek no more than a present delight, that 
evanishes with the sound of the words that die in the 
air, is not to desire the word as meat, but as music, 
as God tells the prophet Ezekiel of his people. 
Ezek, xxxiii. 32. And lo, thoa art unto them as a 
very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, 
and can flay well upon an instrument ; for they hear 
thy words, and they do them not. To desire the 
word for the increase of knowledge, although this is 
necessary and commendable, and, being rightly qua- 
lified, is a part of spiritual accretion, yet, take it as 
going no further, it is not the true end of the word. 
Nor is the venting of that knowledge in speech and 
frequent discourse of the word and the divine truths 
that are in it; which, where it is governed with 
Christian prudence, is not to be despised, but com- 
mended ; yet, certainly, the highest knowledge, and 
the most frequent and skilful speaking of the word 
severed from the growth here mentioned, misses the 
true end of the word. If any one's head or tongue 
should grow apace, and all the rest stand at a stay, 
it would certainly make him a monster ; and they are 
no other, who are knowing and discoursing Christians, 
and grow daily in that respect, hut not at all in holi 
ness of heart and life, which is the proper growth of 
the children of God. Apposite to their case is 
Epictetus's comparison of the sheep; they return not 
what thev eat in grass- but in wool. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS, 75 

APHORISM XXIII. 

THE SUM OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

LE1GHTOS. 

In times of peace, the Church may dilate more, 
and build as it were into breadth, but in times of 
trouble, it arises more in height ; it is then built 
upwards : as in cities where men are straitened, 
they build usually higher than in the country. 

APHORISM XXIV. 

WORTHY TO BE FRAMED AND HUNG UP IN THE LIBRARY OF 
EVERY THEOLOGICAL STUDENT. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

Where there is a great deal of smoke and no 
clear flame, it argues much moisture in the matter, 
yet it witnesseth certainly that there is fire there; 
and therefore dubious questioning is a much better 
evidence, than that senseless deaclness which most 
take for believing. Men that know nothing in 
sciences, have no doubts. He never truly believed, 
who was not made first sensible and convinced of 
unbelief. 

Never be afraid to doubt, if only you have - the 
disposition to believe, and doubt in order that you 
may end in believing the truth. I will venture to 
add in my own name and from my own conviction 
the following : 

APHORISM XXY. 

He, who begins by loving Christianity better 'than 
truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church 
better than Christianity, and end in loving himself 
better than all. 



AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 



APHORISM XXYI. 



THE ABSENCE OF DISPUTES, AND A GENERAL AVERSION 
TO RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES, NO PROOF OF TRUE 
UNANIMITY. 

I.EIGHTOX AND COLERIDGE. 

The boasted peaceableness about questions of faith 
too often proceeds from a superficial temper, and 
not seldom from a supercilious disdain of whatever 
has no marketable use or value, and from indifference 
to religion itself. Toleration is a herb of spontaneous 
growth in the soil of indifference ; but the weed has 
none of the virtues of the medicinal plant, reared by 
humility in the garden of zeal. Those, who regard 
religions as matters of taste, may consistently include 
all religious differences in the old adage, De gustibus 
non est disputandum. And many there be among 
these of Gallio's temper, who care for none of these 
things, and who account all questions in religion, as 
he did, but matter of words and names. And by this 
all religions may agree together. But that were not 
a natural union produced by the active heat of the 
spirit, but a confusion rather, arising from the want 
of it ; not a knitting together, but a freezing together, 
as cold congregates all bodies how heterogeneous 
soever, sticks, stones, and water ; but heat makes first 
a separation of different things, and then unites those 
that are of the same nature. 

Much of our common union of minds, I fear, pro- 
ceeds from no other than the aforementioned causes, 
want of knowledge, and want of affection to religion. 
You that boast you live conformably to the appoint- 
ments of the Church, and that uo one hears of your 
noise, we may thank the ignorance of your minds for 
that kind of quietness. 

The preceding extract is particularly entitled to 
our serious reflections, as in a tenfold degree more 



MORAL AND RELIC IOCS APHORISMS. 77 

applicable to the present times than to the age in 
which it was written. We all know, that lovers are 
apt to take offence and wrangle on occasions that per- 
haps are but trifles, and which assuredly would appear 
such to those who regard love itself as folly. These 
quarrels may, indeed, be no proof of wisdom ; but 
still, in the imperfect state of our nature the entire 
absence of the same, and this too on far more serious 
provocations, would excite a strong suspicion of a 
comparative indifference in the parties who can love 
so coolly where they profess to love so well. I shall 
believe our present religious tolerancy to proceed from 
the abundance of our charity and good sense, when I 
see proofs that we are equally cool and forbearing as 
litigants and political partisans. 

APHORISM XXVII. 

the influence of worldly views (or what are called 
a man's prospects in life), the bane of the chris- 
tian MINISTRY. 

LEIGHTON. 

It is a base, poor thing for a man to seek himself: 
far below that royal dignity that is here put upon 
Christians, and that priesthood joined with it. Under 
the law, those who were squint-eyed were incapable 
of the priesthood : truly, this squinting toward our 
own interest, the looking aside to that, in God's affairs 
especially, so deforms the face of the soul, that it 
makes it altogether unworthy the honour of this 
spiritual priesthood. Oh ! this is a large task, an 
infinite task. The several creatures bear their part 
in this ; the sun says somewhat, and moon and stars, 
yea, the lowest have some share in it ; the very 
plants and herbs of the field speak of God ; and yet, 
the very highest and best, yea all of them together, 
the whole concert of heaven and earth cannot show 



4 V AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

forth all His praise to the full. No, it is but a 
part, the smallest part of that glory, which they caa 
reach. 

APHORISM XXVIII. 

DESPISE NONE : DESPAIR OF NONE. 

LEIGHTON". 

The Jews would not willingly tread upon the 
smallest piece of paper in their way, but took it up : 
for possibly, said they, the name of God may be on 
it. Though there was a little superstition in this, 
yet truly there is nothing but good religion in it, if 
we apply it to men. Trample not on any ; there 
may be some work of grace there, that thou knowest 
not of. The name of God may be written upon that 
soul thou treadest on ; it may be a soul that Christ 
thought so much of, as to give His precious blood for 
it; therefore despise it not. 



APHORISM XXIX. 

MEN OP LEAST MERIT MOST APT TO BE CONTEMPTUOUS BE- 
CAUSE MOST IGNORANT AND MOST OVERWEENING OF 
THEMSELVES. 

LEIGHTCN. 

Too many take the ready course to deceive them- 
selves; for they look with both eyes on the failings 
and defects of others, and scarcely give their good 
qualities half an eye, while, on the contrary, in 
themselves, they study to the full their own advan- 
tages, and their weaknesses and defects (as one says), 
they skip over, as children do their hard words in 
their lesson, that are troublesome to read : and 
making this uneven parallel, what wonder if the result 
be a gross mistake of themselves ! 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 70 

APHORISM XXX. 
Vanity may strut in rags, and humility ee arrayed in 

PUBPLE AND FINE LINEN. LEIGHT0X . 

It is not impossible that there may be in some an 
affected pride in the meanness of apparel, and in 
others, under either neat or rich attire, a very humble 
unaffected mind : using it upon some of the afore- 
mentioned engagements, or such like, and yet, the 
heart not at all upon it. Magnus qui fictilibus utitur 
tanquam argento, nee ille minor qui argento tanquam 
fictilibus, says Seneca : Great is he who enjoys his 
earthenware as if it were plate, and not less great 
is the man to whom all his plate is no more than 
earthenware. 

APHOKISM XXXI. 

OF DETRACTION AMONG RELIGIOUS PROFESSORS. 

LEIGHTON AND COLEEEDGE. 

They who have attained to a self-pleasing pitch of 
civility or formal religion, have usually that point of 
presumption with it, that they make their own size 
the model and rule to examine all by. What is 
below it, they condemn indeed as profane ; but what 
is beyond it, they account needless and affected 
preciseness : and therefore are as ready as others to 
let fly invectives or bitter taunts against it, which are 
the keen and poisoned shafts of the tongue, and a 
persecution that shall be called to a strict account. 

The slanders, perchance, may not be altogether 
forged or untrue ; they may be the implements, not 
the inventions, of malice. But they do not on this 
account escape the guilt of detraction. Rather, it is 
characteristic of the evil spirit in question, to work 
by the advantage of real faults ; but these stretched 



80 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



and aggravated to the utmost. It is not expressible 

HOW DEEP A WOUND A TONGUE SHARPENED TO THIS 
WORK WILL GIVE, WITH NO NOISE AND A VERY LITTLE 

word. This is the true white gunpowder, which the 
dreaming projectors of silent mischiefs and insensible 
poisons sought for in the laboratories of art and 
nature, in a world of good ; but which was to be found 
in its most destructive form, in the world of evil, the 
tongue. 

APHORISM XXXII. 

THE REMEDY. LEIGHTON. 

All true remedy must begin at the heart; other- 
wise it will be but a mountebank cure, a false imagined 
conquest. The weights and wheels are there, and 
the clock strikes according to their motion. Even 
he that speaks contrary to what is within him, guile- 
fully contrary to his inward conviction and knowledge, 
yet speaks conformably to what is within him in the 
temper and frame of his heart, which is double, a 
heart and a heart, as the Psalmist hath it, Psal. 
xii. 2. 



APHORISM XXXIII. 



LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 



It is an argument of a candid ingenuous mind, to 
delight in the good name and commendations of 
others ; to pass by their defects and take notice of 
their virtues; and to speak and hear of those willingly, 
and not endure either to speak or hear of the other ; 
for in this indeed you may be little less guilty than 
the evil speaker, in taking pleasure in it, though you 
speak it not. He that willingly drinks in tales and 
calumnies, will, from the delight he hath in evil 
hearing, slide insensibly into the humour of evil 
peaking. It is strange how most persons dispense 



MURAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. SI 

with themselves in this point, and that in scarcely 
any societies shall we find a hatred of this ill, hut 
rather some tokens of taking pleasure in it ; and 
until a Christian sets himself to an inward watchful- 
ness over his heart, not suffering in it any thought 
that is uncharitable, or vain self-esteem, upon the 
sight of others' frailties, he will still be subject to 
somewhat of this, in the tongue or ear at least. So, 
then, as for the evil of guile in the tongue, a sincere 
heart, truth in the inward parts, powerfully redresses 
*t; therefore it is expressed, Psal. xv. 2, That 
speaketh the truth from his heart ; thence it flows 
Seek much after this, to speak nothing with God, nor 
msn, but what is the sense of a single unfeigned heart. 
sweet truth ! excellent but rare sincerity ! He that 
loves that truth within, and who is Himself at once 
the truth and the life, He alone can work it there ! 
Seek it of him. 

It is characteristic of the Roman dignity and so- 
briety that, in the Latin, to favour with the tongue 
(favere lingua) means, to be silent. We say, Hold 
your tongue ! as if it were an injunction, that could 
not be carried into effect but by manual force, or the 
pincers of the forefinger and thumb! And verily — I 
blush to say it — it is not women and Frenchmen 
only that would rather have their tongues bitten than 
bitted, and feel their souls in a strait- waistcoat, when 
they are obliged to remain silent. 

APHORISM XXXIT. 

ON THE PASSION FOR NEW AND STRIKING THOUGHTS. 

LEIGHTOS. 

In conversation seek not so much either to venV 
thy knowledge, or to increase it, as to know more 
spiritually and effectually what thou dost know. And 
in this way those mean despised truths, that every 



82 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

one thinks he is sufficiently seen in, will have a new 
sweetness and use in them, which thou didst not so 
vvell perceive before — (for these flowers cannot be 
sucked dry) ; and in this humble sincere way thou 
shalt grow in grace and in knowledge too. 



APHORISM XXXV. 

THE RADICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GOOD MAN AND 
THE VICIOUS MAN. 

LEIGRTON AND COLERIDGE. 

The godly man hates the evil he possibly b) 
temptation hath been drawn to do, and loves the good 
he is frustrated of, and, having intended, hath not 
attained to do. The sinner, who hath his denomi- 
nation from sin as his course, hates the good which 
sometimes he is forced to do, and loves that sin 
which many times he does not, either wanting occa- 
sion and means, so that he cannot do it, or through 
the check of an enlightened conscience possibly dares 
not do ; and though so bound up from the act, as a 
dog in a chain, yet the habit, the natural inclination 
and desire in him, is still the same, the strength of 
his affection is carried to sin. So in the weakest 
sincere Christian, there is that predominant sincerity 
and desire of holy walking, according to which he is 
called a righteous person : the Lord is pleased to 
give him that name, and account him so, being 
upright in heart though often failing. 

Leigh ton adds, " There is a righteousness of a higher 
strain." I do not ask the reader s full assent to this 
position : I do not suppose him as yet prepared to yield 
it. But thus much he will readily admit, that here, 
if any where, we are to seek the fine line which, like 
stripes of light in light, distinguishes, not divides, the 
summit of religious morality from spiritual religion. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHOBISMS. 83 

" A righteousness (Leighton continues), that is not 
in him, but upon him. He is clothed with it."' This, 
Header ! is the controverted doctrine, so warmly as- 
serted and so bitterly decried under the name of 
imputed righteousness. Our learned archbishop, 
you see, adopts it; and it is on this account princi* 
pally, that by many of our leading churchmen his 
orthodoxy has been more than questioned, and hia 
name put in the list of proscribed divines, as a 
Calvinist. That Leighton attached a definite sense 
to the words above quoted, it vrould be uncandid to 
doubt ; and the general spirit of his writings leads me 
to presume that it was compatible with the eternal 
distinction between things and persons, and therefore 
opposed to modern Calvinism. But what it was, I 
have not, I own, been able to discover. The sense, 
however, in which I think he might have received 
this doctrine, and in which I avow myself a believer 
in it, I shall have an opportunity of showing in 
another place. My present object is to open out the 
road by the removal of prejudices, so far at least as 
to throw some disturbing doubts on the secure taking- 
for-granted, that the peculiar tenets of the Christian 
faith asserted in the Articles and Homilies of our 
national Church are in contradiction to the common 
sense of mankind. And with this view (and not in 
the arrogant expectation or wish, that a mere ipse 
dixit should be received for argument) — I here avow 
my conviction, that the doctrine of imputed righteous- 
ness, rightly and Scripturally interpreted, is so far 
from being either irrational or immoral, that reason 
itself prescribes the idea in order to give a meaning 
and an ultimate object to morality; and that the moral 
law in the conscience demands its reception in order 
to give reality and substantive existence to the idea 
presented by the reason. 

g2 



84 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM XXXYI. 

LEIGHTOK. 

Your blessedness is not,- — no, believe it, it is not 
where most of you seek it, in things below you. How 
can that be ? It must be a higher good to make you 
happy. 

COMMENT. 

Every rank of creatures, as it ascends in the scale 
of creation, leaves death behind it or under it. The 
metal at its height of being seems a mute prophecy 
of the coming vegetation, into a mimic semblance of 
which it crystallises. The blossom and flower, the 
acme of vegetable life, divides into correspondent 
organs with reciprocal functions, and by instinctive 
motions and approximations seems impatient of that 
fixure, by which it is differenced in kind from the 
flower-shaped Psyche, that flutters with free wing 
above it. And wonderfully in the insect realm doth 
the irritability, the proper seat of instinct, while yet 
the nascent sensibility is subordinated thereto — most 
wonderfully, I say, doth the muscular life in the 
insect, and the musculo-arterial in the bird, imitate 
and typically rehearse the adaptive understanding, 
yea, and the moral affections and charities, of man. 
Let us carry ourselves back, in spirit, to the myste- 
rious week, the teeming work-days of the Creator ; 
as they rose in vision before the eye of the inspired 
historian of the generations of the heavens and of the 
earth, in the day that the Lord God made the earth 
and the heavens.* And who that hath watched their 
ways with an understanding heart, could, as the 
vision evolving still advanced towards him, contem- 
plate the filial and loyal Bee ; the home-building, 

* Gen. ii. L—Ed. 



MOI&.'L AKD RELIGIOUS APHOKISMS. 85- 

wedded, and divorceless Swallow ; and above all the 
manifoldly intelligent* Ant tribes, with their com- 
monwealths and confederacies, their warriors and 
miners, the husbandfolk, that fold in their tiny 
flocks on the honeyed-leaf, and the virgin sisters with 
the holy instincts of maternal love, detached and in 
selfless purity — and not say to himself, Behold the 
shadow of approaching humanity, the sun rising from 
behind, in the kindling morn of creation ! Thus all 
lower natures find their highest good in semblances 
and seekings of that which is higher and better. 
All things strive to ascend, and ascend in their 
striving. And shall man alone stoop ? Shall his 
pursuits and desires, the reflections of his inward 
life, be like the reflected image of a tree on the edge 
of a pool, that grows downward, and seeks a mock 
heaven in the unstable element beneath it, in neigh 
bourhood with the slim water weeds and oozy bottom- 
grass that are yet better than itself and more noble, 
in as far as substances that appear as shadows are 
preferable to shadows mistaken for substance ! No ! 
it must be a higher good to make you happy. While 
you labour for any thing below your proper humanity, 
you seek a happy life in the region of death. Well 
saith the moral poet — 

Unless above himself he can 
Erect himself, how mean a thing is man ! 



APHORISM XXXVII. 

LEIOHTON. 

There is an imitation of men that is impious and 
wicked, which consists in taking the copy of their 
sins. Again, there is an imitation which though not 

* See Huber on Bees, and on Ants. 



80 AIDS TO BEFLECTION. 

so grossly evil, yet is poor and servile, being in mean 
things, yea, sometimes descending to imitate the 
very imperfections of others, as fancying some come- 
liness in them : as some of Basil's scholars, who 
imitated his slow speaking, which he had a little in 
the extreme, and could not help. But this is 
always laudable, and worthy of the best minds, to be 
imitators of that which is good, wheresoever they find 
it ; for that stays not in any man's person, as the 
ultimate pattern, but rises to the highest grace, being 
man's nearest likeness to God, His image and re- 
semblance, bearing His stamp and superscription, and 
belonging peculiarly to Him, in what hand soever it 
be found, as carrying the mark of no other owner 
than Him. 

APHORISM XXXYIII. 

LEIGHTON. 

Those who think themselves high-spirited, and 
will bear least, as they speak, are often, even by 
that, forced to bow most, or to burst under it ; while 
humility and meekness escape many a burden, and 
many a blow, always keeping peace within, and often 
without too. 

APHORISM XXXIX. 

LEIGHTGN. 

Our condition is universally exposed to fears and 
troubles, and no man is so stupid but he studies and 
projects for some fence against them, some bulwark 
to break the incursion of evils, and so to bring his 
mind to some ease, ridding it of the fear of them. 
Thus, men seek safety in the greatness, or multitude, 
or supposed faithfulness, of friends ; they seek by 
any means to be strongly underset this way, to have 
many, and powerful, and trust-worthy friends. But 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 87 

wiser men, perceiving the unsafe ty and vanity of 
these and all external things, have cast about for 
some higher course. They see a necessity of with- 
drawing a man from externals, which do nothing but 
mock and deceive those most who trust most to them ; 
but they cannot tell whither to direct him. The best 
of them bring him into himself, and think to quiet 
him so, but the truth is, he finds as little to support 
him there ; there is nothing truly strong enough 
within him, to hold out against the many sorrows and 
fears which still from without do assault him. So 
then, though it is well done, to call off a man from 
outward things, as moving sands, that he build not 
on them, yet this is not enough ; for his ow r n spirit 
is as unsettled a piece as is in all the world, and 
must have some higher strength than its own, to 
fortify and fix it. This is the way that is here taught, 
Fear not their fear, hut sanctify the Lord your God 
in your hearts ; and if you can attain this latter, the 
former will follow of itself. 



APHORISM XL. 

WORLDLY TROUBLES IDOLS. 

LEIGHT02T. 

The too ardent love or self-willed desire of power, 
or wealth, or credit in the world, is (an Apostle has 
assured us) idolatry. Now among the words or 
synonymes for idols in the Hebrew language, there 
is one that in its primary sense signifies troubles 
(tegirim), other two that signify terrors (miphletzeth 
and emim). And so it is certainly. All our idols 
prove so to us. They fill us with nothing but anguish 
and troubles, with cares and fears, that are good for 
nothing but to be fit punishments of the folly, out 
of which they arise. 



88 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM XLI. 

ON THE RIGHT TREATMENT OF INFIDELS. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

A regardless contempt of infidel writings is 
usually the fittest answer ; Spreta vilescerent. But 
where the holy profession of Christians is likely to 
receive either the main or the indirect blow, and a 
word of defence may do any thing to ward it off, there 
we ought not to spare to do it. 

Christian prudence goes a great way in the regu- 
lating of this. Some are not capable of receiving 
rational answers, especially in divine things ; they 
were not only lost upon them, but religion dishonoured 
by the contest. 

Of this sort are the vulgar railers at religion, the 
foul-mouthed beliers of the Christian faith and his- 
tory. Impudently false and slanderous assertions 
can be met only by assertions of their impudent and 
slanderous falsehood : and Christians will not, must 
not, condescend to this. How can mere railing be 
answered by them who are forbidden to return a rail 
ing answer? Whether, or on what provocations, 
such offenders may be punished or coerced on the 
score of incivility, and ill-neighbourhood, and for 
abatement of a nuisance, as in the case of other scolds 
and endangerers of the public peace, must be trusted 
to the discretion of the civil magistrate. Even then 
there is danger of giving them importance, and 
flattering their vanity, by attracting attention to their 
works, if the punishment be slight ; and if severe, of 
spreading far and wide their reputation as martyrs, 
as the smell of a dead dog at a distance is said to 
change into that of musk. Experience hitherto 
seems to favour the plan of treating these betes puantes 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 89 

and enfans de D table, as their four-footed brethren, 
the skink and squash, are treated' 1 ' by American 
woodmen, who turn their backs upon the fetid 
intruder, and make appear not to see him, even at 
the cost of suffering him to regale on the favourite 
viand of these animals, the brains of a stray goose 
or crested thraso of the dunghill. At all events, it 
is degrading to the majesty, and injurious to the 
character, of religion, to make its safety the plea for 
their punishment, or at all to connect the name of 
Christianity with the castigation of indecencies that 
properly belong to the beadle, and the perpetrators 
of which would have equally deserved his lash, 
though the religion of their fellow-citizens, thus as- 
sailed by them, had been that of Fo or of Juggernaut. 
On the other hand, we are to answer every one 
that inquires a reason, or an account; which sup- 
poses something receptive of it. We ought to judge 
ourselves engaged to give it, be it an enemy, if he 
will hear ; if it gain him not, it may in part convince 
and cool him ; much more, should it be one who 
ingenuously inquires for satisfaction, and possibly 
inclines to receive the truth, but has been prejudiced 
by misrepresentations of it. 

* " About the end of the same year (says Kalm), another 
of these animals (Mephitis Americana) crept into our cellar; 
but did not exhale the smallest scent, because it was not 
disturbed. A foolish old woman, however, who perceived it at 
night, by the shining, and thought, I suppose, that it would set 
the world on fire, hilled it : and at that moment its stench began 
to spread" 

I recommend this anecdote to the consideration of sundry 
old women, on this side of the Atlantic, who, though they 
do not wear the appropriate garment, are worthy to sit in 
their committee-room, like Bickerstaff in the Tatler, under 
the canopy of their grandam's hoop-petticoat. 



90 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

APHORISM XLII. 

PASSION NO FRIEND TO TRUTH. 

LEIGETO.W 

Truth needs not the service of passion ; yea, 
nothing so disserves it, as passion when set to serve 
it. The Spirit of truth is withal the Spirit of meek- 
ness. The Dove that rested on that great champion 
of truth, who is The Truth itself, is from Him 
derived to the lovers of truth, and they ought to seek 
the participation of it. Imprudence makes some kind 
of Christians lose much of their labour in speaking 
for religion, and drive those further off, whom they 
would draw into it. 

The confidence that attends a Christian's belief 
makes the believer not fear men, to whom he answers, 
but still lie fears his God, for whom he answers, and 
whose interest is chief in those things he speaks of. 
The soul that hath the deepest sense of spiritual 
things, and the truest knowledge of God, is most 
afraid to miscarry in speaking of Him, most tender 
and wary how to acquit itself when engaged to speak 
of and for God.-:' 

* To the same purpose are the two following sentences 
from Hilary : — 

Etiam quo? pro religione dicimus, cum grandi metu et dis- 
ciplina dicer c debemits. — Hilarius de Trinit. Lib. 7. 

Non relictus est hominum eloquiis de Dei rebus alms quam 
Dei sermo. — lb. 

The latter, however, must be taken w 7 ith certain qualifi- 
cations and exceptions : as when any two or more texts are 
in apparent contradiction, and it is required to state a trutk 
that comprehends and reconciles both, and which, of course^ 
cannot be expressed in the words of either : — for example, 
the Filial subordination (My Father is greater titan 1), in thj 
equal Deity (My Father and 1 are one). 



NOEAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 91 

APHORISM XLIII. 

OX THE CONSCIENCE. 

LEIGHTOiJ 

It is a fruitless verbal debate, whether Conscience 
be a faculty or a habit. When all is examined, con 
science will be found to be no other than the mind 
of a man, under the notion of a particular reference 
to himself and his own actions. 



I rather think that conscience is the ground and 
antecedent of human (or self-) consciousness, and not 
any modification of (he latter. I have selected the 
preceding extract as an exercise for reflection ; and 
because I think that in too closely following Thomas 
a Kempis, the Archbishop has strayed from his own 
judgment. The definition, for instance, seems to say 
all, and in fact says nothing ; for if I asked, How do 
you define the human mind? the answer must at 
least contain, if not consist of, the words, " a mind 
capable of conscience." For conscience is no syno- 
nyme of consciousness, nor any mere expression of 
the same as modified by the particular object. On 
the contrary, a consciousness properly human (that 
is, self-consciousness), with the sense of moral re- 
sponsibility, pre-supposes the conscience as its ante- 
cedent condition and ground. — Lastly, the sentence, 
"It is a fruitless verbal debate," — is an assertion of 
the same complexion with the contemptuous sneers 
at verbal criticism by the contemporaries of Bentley. 
In questions of philosophy or divinity that have 
occupied the learned and been the subjects of many 
successive controversies, for one instance of mere 
logomachy I could bring ten instances of logodsedaly, 
or verbal legerdemain which have perilously con 



• 



92 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

firmed prejudices, and withstood the advancement of 
truth, in consequence of the neglect of verbal debate, 
that is, strict discussion of terms. In whatever sense 
however, the term Conscience may be used, the fol- 
lowing Aphorism is equally true and important. It 
is worth noticing, likewise, that Leighton himself in 
a following page, tells us, that a good conscience is 
the root of a good conversation, and then quotes 
from St. Paul a text, Titus i. 15, in which the Mind 
and the Conscience are expressly distinguished. 

APHORISM XLIV. 

THE LIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE A NECESSARY ACCOMPANIMENT OF 
A GOOD CONSCIENCE. 

LEIGHTON. 

If you would have a good conscience, you must by 
all means have so much light, so much knowledge of 
the will of God, as may regulate you, and show you 
your way, may teach you how to do, and speak, and 
think, as in His presence. 

APHORISM XLV. 

YET THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULE, THOUGH ACCOMPANIED 
BY AN ENDEAVOUR TO ACCOMMODATE OUR CONDUCT TO 
THIS RULE, WILL NOT OF ITSELF FORM A GOOD CON- 
SCIENCE. 

LEIGHTON. 

To set the outward actions right, though with an 
honest intention, and not so to regard and find out 
the inward disorder of the heart, whence that in the 
actions flows, is but to be still putting the index of a 
clock right with your finger, while it is foul or out 
of order w T ithin, which is a continual business and 
does no good. Oh ! but a purified conscience, a soul 
renewed and refined in its temper and affections, will 
make things go right without, in all the duties and 
acts of our calling. 



MORAL AND RELIGTOCS APHORISMS. U3 

APHORISM XLYI. 

THE DEPTH OF THE CONSCIENCE. 

How deeply seated the Conscience is in the human 
soul, is seen in the effect which sudden calamities 
produce on guilty men, even when unaided by any 
determinate notion or fears of punishment after 
death. The wretched criminal, as one rudely awa- 
kened from a long sleep, bewildered with the new 
light, and half recollecting, half striving to recollect, 
a fearful something, he knows not what, but which 
he will recognise as soon as he hears the name, 
already interprets the calamities into judgments, 
executions of a sentence passed by an invisible judge ; 
as if the vast pyre of the last judgment were already 
kindled in an unknown distance, and some flashes of 
it, darting forth at intervals beyond the rest, were 
flying and lighting upon the face of his soul. The 
calamity may consist in loss of fortune, or character, 
or reputation ; but you hear no regrets from him. 
Remorse extinguishes all regret; and remorse is the 
implicit creed of the guilty. 

APHORISM XLYII. 

LKIGHTOH AST) COLERIDGE. 

God hath suited every creature He bath made with 
a convenient good to which it tends, and in the 
obtainment of which it rests and is satisfied. Natural 
bodies have all their own natural place, whither, if 
not hindered, they move incessantly till they be in it; 
and thev declare, bv resting there, that thev are (as 
I may say) where they would be. Sensitive creatures 
are carried to seek a sensitive good, as agreeable to 
their rank in being, and, attaining that, aim no 



01 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

farther. Now in this is the excellency of man, that 
he is made capable of a communion with his Maker, 
and, because capable of it, is unsatisfied without it. : 
the soul, being cut out (so to speak) to that largeness, 
cannot be filled with less. Though he is fallen from 
his right to that good, and from all right desire of it, 
yet not from a capacity of it, no, nor from a necessity 
of it, for the answering and filling of his capacity. 

Though the heart once gone from God turns con- 
tinually further away from Him, and moves not 
towards Him till it be renewed, yet, even in that 
wandering, it retains that natural relation to God, as 
its centre, that it hath no true rest elsewhere, nor can 
by any means find it. It is made for Him, and is 
therefore still restless till it meet with Him. 

It is true, the natural man takes much pains to 
quiet his heart by other things, and digests many 
vexations with hopes of contentment in the end and 
accomplishment of some design he hath ; but still the 
heart misgives. Many times he attains not the 
thing he seeks; but if he do, yet he never attains 
the satisfaction he seeks and expects in it, but only 
learns from that to desire something further, and still 
hunts on after a fancy, drives his own shadow before 
him, and never overtakes it ; and if he did, yet it is 
but a shadow. And so, in running from God, 
besides the sad end, he carries an interwoven punish- 
ment with his sin, the natural disquiet and vexation 
of his spirit, fluttering to and fro, and finding no rest 
for the sole of his foot ; the waters of inconstancy 
and vanity covering the whole face of the earth. 

These tilings are too gross and heavy. The soul, 
the immortal soul, descended from heaven, must 
either be more happy or remain miserable. The 
highest, the uncreated Spirit, is the proper good, the 
Father of spirits, that pure and full Good which 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 05 

raises the soul above itself ; whereas all other things 
draw it down below itself. So, then, it is never 
well with the soul, but when it is near unto God, 
yea, in its union with Him, married to Him : mis 
7iiatching itself elsewhere it hath never anything but 
shame and sorrow. All that forsake Thee shall he 
ashamed, says the prophet, Jer. xvii. 13 ; and the 
Psalmist, They that are jar off from Thee shall perish. 
Psal. lxxiii. 27. And this is indeed our natural 
miserable condition, and it is often expressed this 
way, by estrangedness and distance from God. 

The same sentiments are to be found in the works 
of Pagan philosophers and moralists. Well then 
may they be made a subject of reflection in our days. 
And well may the pious Deist, if such a character 
now exists, reflect that Christianity alone both 
teaches the way, and provides the means, of fulfilling 
the obscure promises of this great instinct for all 
men, which the philosophy of boldest pretensions 
confined to the sacred few. 



APHORISM XLYIII. 

A CONTRACTED SPHERE, OR WHAT IS CALLED RETIRING FROM 
THE BUSINESS OF THE WORLD, NO SECURITY FROM THE 
SPIRIT OF THE WORLD. 

LEIGKTON. 

The heart may be engaged in a little business as 
much, if thou watch it not, as in many and great affairs. 
A man may drown in a little brook or pool, as well as 
in a great river, if he be down and plunge himself into 
it, and put his head under water. Some care thou must 
have, that thou mayst not care. Those things that are 
thorns indeed, thou must make a hedge of them, to 
keep out those temptations that accompany sloth, and 
extreme want that waits on it ; but let them be the 
hedge : suffer them not to grow within the garden. 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM XLIX. 

ON CHURCH-GOING, AS A PART OF RELIGIOUS MORALITY, 
WHEN NOT IN REFERENCE TO A SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



It is a strange folly in multitudes of us, to set our- 
selves no mark, to propound no end in the hearing of 
the Gospel. The merchant sails not merely that he 
may sail, but for traffic, and traffics that he may be 
rich. The husbandman plows not merely to keep 
himself busy, with no further end, but plows that he 
may sow, and sows that he may reap with advantage. 
And shall we do the most excellent and fruitful 
work fruitlessly — hear, only to hear, and look no 
further ? This is indeed a great vanity and a great 
misery, to lose that labour, and gain nothing by it, 
which, duly used, w r ould be of all others most advan- 
tageous and gainful ; and yet all meetings are full of 
this! 

APHORISM L. 

ON THE HOPES AND SELF-SATISFACTION OF A RELIGIOUS 
MORALIST, INDEPENDENT OF A SPIRITUAL FAITH— ON 
WHAT ARE THEY GROUNDED? 

LEIGHTO.W 

There have been great disputes one way or another, 
about the merit of good works ; but I truly think 
they who have laboriously engaged in them have been 
very idly, though very eagerly, employed about 
nothing, since the more sober of the Schoolmen 
themselves acknowledge there can be no such thing 
as meriting from the blessed God, in the human, or, 
to speak more accurately, in any created nature what- 
soever; nay, so far from any possibility of merit, 
there can be no room for reward any otherwise than 
of the sovereign pleasure and gracious kindness of 
God ; and the more ancient writers, when they use 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 97 

die word merit, mean nothing b) T it but a certain 
correlate to that reward which God both promises 
and bestows of mere grace and benignity. Other- 
wise, in order to constitute what is properly called 
merit, many things must concur, which no man in 
his senses will presume to attribute to human works, 
though ever so excellent ; particularly, that the tiling 
done must not previously be matter of debt, and that 
it be entire, or our own act, unassisted by foreign 
aid ; it must also be perfectly good, and it must bear 
an adequate proportion to the reward claimed in con 
sequence of it. If ail these things do not concur, the 
act cannot possibly amount to merit. Whereas I 
think no one will venture to assert, that any one of 
these can take place in any human action whatever. 
But why should I enlarge here, when one single cir- 
cumstance overthrows all those titles? The most 
righteous of mankind would not be able to stand, if 
his works were weighed in the balance of strict 
justice ; how much less then could they deserve that 
immense glory which is now in question ! Nor is 
this to be denied only concerning the unbeliever and 
the sinner, but concerning the righteous and pious 
believer, who is not only free from all the guilt of 
his former impenitence and rebellion, but endowed 
with the gift of the Spirit. For the time is come that 
judgment tnust begin at the house of God: and if it 
first begin at as, ichat shall the end be of them that 
obey not the Gospel of God ? And if the righteous 
scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the 
sinner appear? 1 Peter iv. 17, 18. The Apostle's 
interrogation expresses the most vehement negation, 
and signifies that no mortal, in whatever degree he is 
placed, if he be called to the strict examination of divine 
justice, without daily and repeated forgiveness, could 
be able to keep his standing, and much less could he 



98 ArT)^ TO REFLECTION. 

arise to that glorious height. " That merit," say a 
Bernard, " on which my hope relies, consists in these 
three things ; the love of adoption, the truth of the 
promise, and the power of its performance." This is 
the threefold cord which cannot be broken. 

COMilENT. 

Often have I heard it said by advocates for the 
Socinian scheme — True ! we are all sinners ; but 
even in the Old Testament God has promised for- 
giveness on repentance. One of the Fathers (I 
forget which) supplies the retort — True! God has 
promised pardon on penitence ; but has he promised 
penitence on sin ? — He that repenteth shall be for- 
given ; but where is it said, He that sinneth shall 
repent? But repentance, perhaps, the repentance 
required in Scripture, the passing into a new and 
contrary principle of action, this metanoia, is in the 
sinners own power? at his own liking? He has 
but to open his eyes to the sin, and the tears are 
close at hand to wash it away ? — Verily, the tenet of 
T ran substantiation is scarcely at greater variance with 
the common sense and experience of mankind, or 
borders more closely on a contradiction in terms than 
this volunteer transmentation, this self-change, as the 
easy means of self-salvation ! But the reflections of 
our evangelical Author on this subject will appro- 
priately commence the Aphorisms relating to Spiritual 
Religion. 



G9 



ELEMENTS OF EELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY, 

PRELIMINARY TO THE 

APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



Philip saith unto him : Lord, show us the Father, and it 
sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, He that hath seen 
me hath seen the Father : and how sayest thou then, 
Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in 
the Father and the Father in me 1 And I will pray the 
Father and he shall give you another Comforter, even the 
Spirit of Truth : whom the worid cannot receive, because 
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know 
him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. And 
in that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye 
in me, and I in you. — John, xiv. 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 20. 



PRELIMINARY. 



If there be aught spiritual in man, the Will must 
be such. 

If there be a Will, there must be a spirituality in 
man. 

I suppose both positions granted. The Reader 
admits the reality of the power, agency, or mode of 
being expressed in the term, Spirit ; and the actual 
existence of a Will. He sees clearly, that the idea 
of the former is necessary to the conceivability of the 
latter ; and that, vice versa, in asserting the fact of 
the latter he presumes and instances the truth of the 
former ; — just as in our common and received sys- 
tems of natural philosophy, the being of imponderable 
matter is assumed to render the lode-stone intelli- 

h2 



100 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

gible, and the fact of the lode-stone adduced to prove 
the reality of imponderable matter. 

In short, I suppose the Reader, whom I now invite 
to the third and last division of this Work, already 
disposed to reject for himself and his human brethren 
the insidious title of " Natures noblest animal," or 
to 'retort it as the unconscious irony of the Epicurean 
poet on the animalising tendency of his own philo- 
sophy. I suppose him convinced, that there is more 
in man than can be rationally referred to the life of 
nature and the mechanism of organisation ; that he 
has a will not included in this mechanism ; and that 
the will is in an especial and pre-eminent sense the 
spiritual part of our humanity. 

Unless, then, we have some distinct notion of the 
Will, and some acquaintance with the prevalent 
errors respecting the same, an insight into the nature 
of spiritual religion is scarcely possible ; and our 
reflections on the particular truths and evidences of a 
spiritual state will remain obscure, perplexed, and un 
safe. To place my Reader on this requisite vantage 
ground, is the purpose of the following exposition. 

We have begun, as in geometry, with defining our 
terms; and we proceed, like the geometricians, with 
stating our postulates ; the difference being, that the 
postulates of geometry no man can deny, those of 
moral science are such as no good man will deny. 
For it is not in our power to disclaim our nature as 
sentient beings ; but it is in our power to disclaim 
our nature as moral beings. It is possible — (barely 
possible, I admit) — that a man may have remained 
ignorant or unconscious of the moral law r within him : 
and a man need only persist in disobeying the law of 
conscience to make it possible for himself to deny 
its existence, or to reject and repel It as a phantom 
of superstition. Were it otherwise, the Creed would 



ELEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY. 101 

stand in the same relation to morality as the multi- 
plication table. 

This then is the distinction of moral philosophy — 
not that I begin with one or more assumptions ; for 
this is common to all science ; but — that I assume a 
something, the proof of which no man can give to 
another, yet every man may find for himself. If any 
man assert that he cannot find it, I am bound to 
disbelieve him. I cannot do otherwise without un- 
settling the very foundations of my own moral nature. 
.For I either find it as an essential of the humanity 
common to him and me : or I have not found it at 
all, except as a hypochondriast finds glass legs. If, 
on the other hand, he will not find it, he excommu- 
nicates himself. He forfeits his personal rights, and 
becomes a thing : that is, one who may rightfully be 
employed, or used, as* means to an end, against his 
will, and without regard to his interest. 

All the significant objections of the Materialist 
and Necessitarian are contained in the term, Morality ; 
all the objections of the Infidel, in the term, Religion. 
The very terms, I say, imply a something granted, 
which the objection supposes not granted. The term 
presumes what the objection 1 denies, and in denying 

* On this principle alone is it possible to justify capital or 
ignominious punishment?, or indeed any punishment not 
having the reformation of the criminal as one of its objects. 
Such punishments, like those inflicted on suicides, must be 
regarded as posthumous : the wilful extinction of the moral 
and personal life being, for the purposes of punitive justice, 
equivalent to a wilful destruction of the natural life. If the 
speech of Judge Burnet to the horse-stealer, — (You are not 
hanged for stealing a horse ; but, that horses may not be 
stolen) — can be vindicated at all, it must be on this prin- 
ciple ; and not on the all-unsettling scheme of expedience, 
which is the anarchy of morals. 



102 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

presumes the contrary. For it is most important to 
observe that the reasoners on both sides commence 
by taking something for granted, our assent to which 
they ask or demand : that is, both set off with an 
assumption in the form of a postulate. But the 
Epicurean assumes what according to himself he 
neither is nor can be under any obligation to assume, 
and demands what he can have no right to demand: 
for he denies the reality of all moral obligation, the 
existence of any right. If he use the words, right 
and obligation, he does it deceptively, and means 
only power and compulsion. To overthrow the faith 
in aught higher or other than nature ' and physical 
necessity, is the very purpose of his argument. He 
desires you only to take for granted, that all reality 
is included in nature, and he may then safely defy 
you to ward off his conclusion — that nothing is 
excluded ! 

But as he cannot morally demand, neither can he 
rationally expect, your assent to this premiss: for 
he cannot be ignorant, that the best and greatest of 
men have devoted their lives to the enforcement of 
the contrary ; that the vast majority of the human 
race in all ages and in all nations have believed in 
the contrary ; and that there is not a language on 
earth, in which he could argue, f,»r ten minutes, in 
support of his scheme, without sliding into words and 
phrases that imply the contrary. It has been said, 
that the Arabic has a thousand names for a lion ; 
but this would be a trifle compared with the number 
of superfluous words and useless synonymes that 
would be found in an index expurgatorins of any 
European dictionary constructed on the principles of 
a consistent and strictly consequential Materialism. 

The Christian, likewise grounds his philosophy on 
assertions; but with the best of all reasons for 



ELEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY. 103 

making them — namely, that he ought so to do. He 
asserts what he can neither prove, nor account for, 
nor himself comprehend ; but with the strongest 
inducements, that of understanding thereby whatever 
else it most concerns him to understand aright. And 
yet his assertions have nothing in them of theory or 
hypothesis : but are in immediate reference to three 
ultimate facts ; namely, the reality of the law of 
conscience ; the existence of a responsible will, as 
the subject of that law ; and lastly, the existence of 
evil — of evil essentially such, not by accident of 
outward circumstances, not derived from its physical 
consequences, nor from any cause out of itself. The 
first is a fact of consciousness ; the second a fact of 
reason necessarily concluded from the first ; and the 
third a fact of history interpreted by both. 

Omnia exeunt in mysterium, says a schoolman; 
that is, There is nothing, the absolute ground of 
which is not a mystery. The contrary were indeed 
a contradiction in terms : for how can that, which is 
to explain all things, be susceptible of an explana- 
tion ? It would be to suppose the same thing first 
and second at the same time. 

If I rested here, I should merely have placed my 
creed in direct opposition to that of the Necessita- 
nans, who assume — (for observe, both parties begin 
in an assumption and cannot do otherwise) — that 
motives act on the will, as bodies act on bodies ; and 
that whether mind and matter are essentially the 
same, or essentially different, they are both alike 
under one and the same law of compulsory causation 
But this is far from exhausting my intention. I 
mean at the same time to oppose the disciples of 
Shaftesbury and those who, substituting one faith for 
another, have been well called the pious Deists of 
the last century, in order to distinguish them from 



101 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the infidels of the present age, who persuade them- 
selves, — (for the thing itself is not possible) — that 
they reject all faith. I declare my dissent from these 
two, because they imposed upon themselves an idea 
for a fact: a most sublime idea indeed, and so 
necessary to human nature, that without it no virtue 
is conceivable ; but still an idea. In contradiction 
to their splendid but delusory tenets, I profess a 
deep conviction that man was and is a fallen creature, 
not by accidents of bodily constitution or any other 
cause, which human wisdom in a course of ages 
might be supposed capable of removing ; but as 
diseased in his will, in that will which is the true 
and only strict synonym e of the word, I, or the 
intelligent Self. Thus at each of these two oppo- 
site roads (the philosophy of Hobbes and that of 
Shaftesbury), I have placed a directing post, informing 
my fellow-travellers, that on neither of these roads 
can they see the truths to which I would direct their 
attention. 

But the place of starting was at the meeting of 
four roads, and one only was the right road. I 
proceed therefore to preclude the opinion of those 
likewise, who indeed agree with me as to the moral 
responsibility of man in opposition to Hobbes and 
the anti-moralists, and that he is a fallen creature, 
essentially diseased, in opposition to Shaftesbury and 
the mis-interpreters of Plato ; but who differ from me 
in exaggerating the diseased weakness of the will 
into an absolute privation of all freedom, thereby 
making moral responsibility not a mystery above 
comprehension, but a direct contradiction, of which 
we do distinctly comprehend the absurdity. Among 
the consequences of this doctrine, is that direful one 
of swallowing up all the attributes of the Supreme 
Being in the one attribute of infinite power, and 



ELEMENTS OF HELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY. 105 

thence deducing that things are good and -wise 
because they were created, and not created through 
wisdom and goodness. Thence too the awful attri- 
bute of justice is explained away into a mere right 
of absolute property ; the sacred distinction between 
things and persons is erased ; and the selection of 
persons for virtue and vice in this life, and for 
eternal happiness or misery in the next, is repre- 
sented as the result of a mere will, acting in the 
blindness and solitude of its own infinity. The title 
of a work written by the great and pious Boyle is, 
*' Of the awe which the human mind owes to the 
Supreme Reason." This, in the language of these 
gloomy doctors, must be translated into — " The 
horror, which a being capable of eternal pleasure or 
pain is compelled to feel at the idea of an Infinite 
Power, about to inflict the latter on an immense 
majority of human souls, without any power on their 
part either to prevent it or the actions which are (not 
indeed its causes but) its assigned signals, and pre- 
ceding links of the same iron chain ! " 

Against these tenets I maintain, that a will con- 
ceived separately from intelligence is a nonentity, 
and a mere phantasm of abstraction ; and that a will, 
the state of which does in no sense originate in its 
own act, is an absolute contradiction. It might b8 
an instinct, an impulse, a plastic power, and, if ac- 
companied with consciousness, a desire ; but a will it 
could not be. And this every human being knows 
with equal clearness, though different minds may 
reflect on it with different degrees of distinctness ; 
for who would not smile at the notion of a rose 
willing to put forth its buds and expand them into 
flowers? That such a phrase would be deemed a 
poetic license proves the difference in the things : 
for all metaphors are grounded on an apparent 



100 AIDS TO JREFLECTION. 

likeness of tilings essentially different. I utterly 
disclaim the notion, that any human intelligence, 
with whatever power it might manifest itself, is 
alone adequate to the office of restoring health to 
the will : but at the same time I deem it impious 
and absurd to hold that the Creator would have 
given us the faculty of reason, or that the Redeemer 
would in so many varied forms of argument and 
persuasion have appealed to it, if it had been either 
totally useless or wholly impotent. Lastly, I find 
all these several truths reconciled and united in the 
belief, that the imperfect human understanding can 
be effectually exerted only in subordination to, and 
in a dependent alliance with, the means and aidances 
supplied by the All-perfect and Supreme Eeason; 
but that under these conditions it is not only an ad- 
missible, but a necessary, instrument of bettering 
both ourselves and others. 

We may now proceed to our reflections on the 
Spirit of Religion. The first three or four Aphorisms 
I have selected from the theological works of Dr. 
Henry More, a contemporary of Archbishop Leighton, 
and, like him, held in suspicion by the Calvinists 
of that time as a Latitudinarian and Platonising 
divine, and who probably, like him, would have 
been arraigned as a Calvinist by the Latitudinarians 
(I cannot say, Platonists) of this day, had the suspicion 
been equally groundless. One or two I have ventured 
to add from my own reflections. The purpose, how- 
ever, is the same in all — that of declaring, in the 
first place, what spiritual religion is not, what is not 
a religious spirit, and what are not to be deemed 
influences of the Spirit. If after these disclaimers 1' 
shall without proof be charged by any with renewing 
or favouring the errors of the Familists, Vanists, 
Seekers, Behmenists, or by whatever other names 



ELEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY. 107 

Church history records the poor bewildered enthu- 
siasts, who in the swarming time of our Republic, 
turned the facts of the Gospel into allegories, and 
superseded the "written ordinances of Christ by a 
pretended teaching and sensible presence of the 
Spirit, I appeal against them to their own con- 
sciences as wilful slanderers. But if with proof, I 
have in these Aphorisms signed and sealed my own 
condemnation. 

" These things I could not forbear to write. For 
the light within me, that is, my reason and con- 
science, does assure me, that the ancient and Apos- 
tolic faith, according to the historical meaning thereof, 
and in the literal sense of the Creed, is solid and 
true : and that Familism * in its fairest form and 
under whatever disguise, is a smooth tale to seduce 
the simple from their allegiance to Christ." 

Henrt MoRE.f 

* The Family of Love, a sect founded by Henry Nicholas 
in Holland in 1555. — Ed. 
f Mysfc. of Godliness, vi. — FcL 



108 



APHOEISMS 

ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



A.nd here it will not be impertinent to observe, that what 
the eldest Greek philosophy entitled the Reason (NOT2) 
and ideas, the philosophic Apostle names the Spirit and 
truths spiritually discerned : while to those who, in the 
pride of learning or in the overweening meanness of 
modern metaphysics, decry the doctrine of the Spirit in 
man and its possible communion with the Holy Spirit as 
vulgar enthusiasm, I submit the following sentences 
from a Pagan philosopher, a nobleman and a minister of 
state — "Ita dico, Lucili, sacer intra nos Spiritus sedet, 
malorum honor umque nostrorum observator el custos. Ilic 
prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vir 
sine Deo nemo est." — Seneca, Epist. xli. 



APHORISM I. 



Every one is to give a reason of his faith; but 
priests and ministers more punctually than any, their 
province being to make good every sentence of the 
Bible to a rational inquirer into the truth of these 
oracles. Enthusiasts find it an easy thing to heat 
the fancies of unlearned and unreflecting hearers ; 
but when a sober man would be satisfied of the 
grounds from whence they speak, he shall not have 
one syllable or the least tittle of a pertinent answer. 
Only they will talk big of the Spirit, and inveigh 
against reason with bitter reproaches, calling it carnal 
or fleshly, though it be indeed no soft flesh, but 
enduring and penetrant steel, even the sword of the 
Spirit, and such as pierces to the heart. 



ON SPIRITUAL HELIGION. 109 

APHORISM II. 

H. MOftE. 

There are two very bad things in this resolving of 
men's faith and practice into the immediate sugges- 
tion of a Spirit not acting on our understandings, or 
rather into the illumination of such a Spirit as they 
can give no account of, such as does not enlighten 
their reason or enable them to render their doc- 
trine intelligible to others. First, it defaces and 
makes useless that part of the image of God in us, 
which we call reason : and, secondly, it takes away 
that advantage, which raises Christianity above all 
other religions, that she dares appeal to so solid a 
faculty. 

APHORISM III. 

It is the glory of the Gospel charter and the 
Christian constitution, that its author and head is 
the Spirit of truth, essential Eeason as well as 
absolute and incomprehensible Will. Like a just 
monarch, he refers even his own causes to the 
judgment of his high courts. — He has his King's 
Bench in the reason, his Court of Equity in the 
conscience ; that the representative of his majesty 
and universal justice, this the nearest to the king's 
heart, and the dispenser of his particular decrees. 
He has likewise his Court of Common Pleas in the 
understanding, his Court of Exchequer in the pru 
dence. The laws are his laws. And though by 
signs and miracles he has mercifully condescended 
to interline here and there with his own hand the 
great statute-book, which he had dictated to his 
a?nanuensis, Nature ; yet has he been graciously 
pleased to forbid our receiving as the king's man- 
dates aught that is not stamped with the Great Seal 
of the Conscience, and countersigned by the Reason 



]]0 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM IV. 

LS AN UNLEARNED MINISTRY, UNDER PRETENCE OF A CALL 
OF THE SPIRIT, AND INWARD GRACES SUPERSEDING OUT- 
WARD HELPS. 

H. MORE. 

Tell me, ye high-flown perfectionists, ye boasters 
of the light within you, could the highest perfection 
of your inward light ever show to you the history of 
past ages, the state of the world at present, the know- 
ledge of arts and tongues, without books or teachers ? 
How then can you understand the providence of God, 
or the age, the purpose, the fulfilment of prophecies, 
or distinguish such as have been fulfilled from those 
to the fulfilment of which we are to look forward ? 
How can you judge concerning the authenticity and 
uncorruptedness of the Gospels, and the other sacred 
Scriptures ? And how, without this knowledge, can 
you support the truth of Christianity ? How can 
you either have, or give a reason for, the faith which 
you profess? This light within, that loves dark- 
ness, and would exclude those excellent gifts of God 
to mankind, knowledge and understanding, what is it 
but a sullen self-sufficiency within you, engendering 
contempt of superiors, pride and a spirit of division, 
and inducing you to reject for yourselves, and to un- 
dervalue in others, the helps without, which the grace 
of God has provided and appointed for his Church — 
nay, to make them grounds or pretexts of your 
dislike or suspicion of Christ's ministers who have 
fruitfully availed themselves of the helps afforded 
them ? 

APHORISM V. 

H. MOUE. 

There are wanderers, whom neither pride nor a 
perverse humour have led astray ; and whose condi- 
tion is such, that I think few more worthy of a 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. Ill 

man's best directions. For the more imperious sects 
having put such unhandsome vizards on Christianity, 
and the sincere milk of the word having been every- 
where so sophisticated by the humours and inventions 
of men, it has driven these anxious melancholists 
to seek for a teacher that cannot deceive, the 
voice of the eternal Word within them ; to which if 
they.be faithful, they assure themselves it will be 
faithful to them in return. Nor would this be a 
groundless presumption, if they had sought this voice 
in the reason and the conscience, with the Scripture 
articulating the same, instead of giving heed to their 
fancy and mistaking bodily disturbances, and the 
vapours resulting therefrom, for inspiration and the 
teaching of the Spirit. 

APHORISM VI. 

HACKET. 

When every man is hi3 own end, all things will 
come to a bad end. Blessed were those days, when 
every man thought himself rich and fortunate by the 
good success of the public wealth and glory. We 
want public souls, we want them. I speak it with 
compassion : there is no sin and abuse in the world 
that affects my thoughts so much. Every man 
thinks, that he is a whole commonwealth in his 
private family. Omnes qua sua sunt qucBrunt. All 
geek then- own. 



Selfishness is common to all ages and countries. 
In all ages self-seeking is the rule, and self-sacrifice 
the exception. But if to seek our private advantage 
in harmony with, and by the furtherance of, the 
public prosperity, and to derive a portion of our 
happiness from sympathy with the prosperity of our 



US AIDS TO KE FLECTION. 

fellow-men — if this be public spirit, it would be 
morose and querulous to pretend that there is any 
want of it in this country and at the present time. 
On the contrary, the number of " public souls" and 
the general readiness to contribute to the public 
good, in science and in religion, in patriotism and in 
nhilanthropy, stand prominent * among the charac- 
teristics of this and the preceding generation. The 
habit of referring actions and opinions to fixed laws ; 
convictions rooted in principles; thought, insight, 
system ; — these, had the good Bishop lived in our 
times, would have been his desiderata, and the theme 
of his complaints. " We want thinking souls, we 
want them." 

This and the three preceding extracts will suffice 
as precautionary Aphorisms. And here, again, the 
Eeader may exemplify the great advantages to be 

* The very marked, positive as well as comparative, mag- 
nitude and prominence of the bump, entitled benevolence 
(see Spurzhoim's map of the human skull) on the head of the 
late Mr. John Thurtel, has woefully unsettled the faith of 
many ardent phrenologists, and strengthened the previous 
doubts of a still greater number into utter disbelief. On my 
mind this fact (for a fact it is) produced the directly contrary 
effect ; and inclined me to suspect, for the first time, that 
there may be some truth in the Spurzheimian scheme. 
Whether future craniologists may not see cause to new-name 
this and one or two other of these convex gnomons, is quite a 
different question. At present, and according to the present 
use of words, any such change would be premature : and we 
must be content to say, that Mr. Thurtel's benevolence was 
insufficiently modified by the unprotrusive and unindicated 
convolutes of the brain, that secrete honesty and common- 
sense. The organ of destructiveness was indirectly poten- 
tiated by the absence or imperfect development of the 
glands of reason and conscience, in this "unfortunate 
gentleman ! " 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 113 

obtained from the habit of tracing the proper meaning 
and history of words. We need only recollect the 
common and idiomatic phrases in which the word 
" spirit " occurs in a physical or material sense (as, 
fruit has lost its spirit and flavour), to be convinced 
that its property is to improve, enliven, actuate some 
other thing, not constitute a thing in its own name. 
The enthusiast may find one exception to this where 
the material itself is called spirit. And when he 
calls to mind, how this spirit acts when taken alone 
by the unhappy persons who in their first exultation 
will boast that it is meat, drink, fire, and clothing to 
them, all in one — when he reflects, that its properties 
are to inflame, intoxicate, madden, with exhaustion, 
lethargy, and atrophy for the sequels ; — well for him, 
if in some lucid interval he should fairly put the 
question to his own mind, how far this is analogous 
to his own case, and whether the exception does not 
confirm the rule. The letter without the spirit killeth ; 
but does it follow, that the spirit is to kill the letter ? 
To kill that which it is its appropriate office to 
enliven ? 

Howe f'er, where the ministry is not invaded, and 
the plain sense of the Scriptures is left undisturbed, 
and the believer looks for the suggestions of the 
Spirit only or chiefly in applying particular passages 
to his own individual case and exigencies ; though in 
this there may be much weakness, some delusion 
and imminent danger of more, I cannot but join with 
Henry More in avowing, that I feel knit to such a 
man in the bonds of a common faith far more closelv 
than to those who receive neither the letter nor the 
Spirit, turning the one into metaphor and oriental 
hyperbole, in order to explain away the other into 
the influence of motives suggested by their own un- 
derstandings, and realised by their own strength. 



114 



APHOEISMS 

ON THAT WHICH IS INDEED SPIRITUAL 
RELIGION. 



In the selection of the extracts that form the 
remainder of this volume, and of the comments 
affixed, I had the following objects principally in 
view: — first, to exhibit the true and Scriptural 
meaning and intent of several articles of faith, that 
are rightly classed among the mysteries and peculiar 
doctrines of Christianity : — secondly, to show the 
perfect rationality of these doctrines, and their 
freedom from all just objection when examined by 
their proper organ, the reason and conscience of 
man : — lastly, to exhibit from the works of Leighton, 
who perhaps of all our learned Protestant theologians 
best deserves the title of a spiritual divine, an in- 
structive and affecting picture of the contemplations, 
reflections, conflicts, consolations, and monitory expe- 
riences of a philosophic and richly-gifted mind, amply 
stored with all the knowledge that books and long 
intercourse with men of the most discordant characters 
could give, under the convictions, impressions, and 
habits of a spiritual religion. 

To obviate a possible disappointment in any of my 
Readers, who may chance to be engaged in theolo- 
gical studies, it may be well to notice, that in vindi- 
cating the peculiar tenets of our Faith, I have not 
entered on the doctrine of the Trinity, or the still 
pro founder mystery of the origin of moral Evil — and 
this for the reasons following. ]. These doctrines 
are not, in strictness, subjects of reflection, in the 



ON SPIRITUAL KELIGION. 115 

proper sense of this word : and both of them demand 
a power and persistency of abstraction, and a pre- 
vious discipline in the highest forms of human 
thought, which it would be unwise, if not presump- 
tuous, to expect from any, who require aids to reflec- 
tion, or would be likely to seek them in the present 
Work. 2. In my intercourse with men of various 
ranks and ages, I have found the far larger number 
of serious and inquiring persons little, if at all, dis- 
quieted by doubts respecting articles of faith simply 
above their comprehension. It is only where the 
belief required of them jars with their moral feelings : 
where a doctrine, in the sense in which they have 
been taught to receive it, appears to contradict their 
clear notions of right and wrong, or to be at variance 
with the divine attributes of goodness and justice, 
that these men are surprised, perplexed, and alas ! 
not seldom offended and alienated. Such are the 
doctrines of arbitrary election and reprobation ; the 
sentence to everlasting torment by an eternal and 
necessitating decree : vicarious atonement, and the 
necessity of the abasement, agony and ignominious 
death of a most holy and meritorious person, to appease 
the wrath of God. Now it is more especially for 
such persons, unwilling sceptics, who, believing ear 
nestly, ask help for their unbelief, that this Volume 
was compiled, and the Comments written : and there- 
fore, to the Scripture doctrines intended by the 
above-mentioned, my principal attention has been 
directed. 

APHORISM I. 

LEIGHTON. 

Where, if not in Christ, is the power that can 
persuade a sinner to return, that can bring home a 
heart to God ? 

i 2 



116 AIDS TO EEFLECTJON. 

Common mercies of God, though they have a 
leading faculty to repentance (Rom. ii. 4), yet the 
rebellious heart will not be led by them. The judg- 
ments of God, public or personal, though they ought 
to drive us to God, yet the heart, unchanged, runs 
the further from God. Do we not see it by ourselves 
and other sinners about us ? They look not at all 
towards Him who smites, much, less do they return , 
or if any more serious thoughts of returning arise 
upon the surprise of an affliction, how soon vanish 
they, either the stroke abating, or the heart, by time, 
growing hard and senseless under it ! Leave Christ 
out, I say, and all other means work not this way ; 
neither the works nor the word of God sounding daily 
in his ear, Return, return. Let the noise of the rod 
speak it too, and both join together to make the cry 
the louder, yet the wicked will do wickedly. (Dan 
xi. 10.) 



By the phrase "in Christ," I understand all the 
supernatural aids vouchsafed and conditionally pro- 
mised in the Christian dispensation : and among them 
the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, 
were it only that the knowledge of spiritual truth is 
of necessity immediate and intuitive ; and the world 
or natural man possesses no higher intuitions than 
those of the pure sense, which are the subjects of 
mathematical science. But aids, observe : — there- 
fore, not by the will of man alone ; but neither 
without the will. The doctrine of modern Calvinism, 
as laid down by Jonathan Edwards, and the late 
Dr. Williams, which represents a will absolutely 
passive, clay in the hands of a potter, destroys all 
will, takes away its essence and definition, as effec- 
tually as in saying — This circle is square — I should 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 317 

deny the figure to be a circle at all. It was in strict 
consistency, therefore, that these writers supported 
the Necessitarian scheme, and made the relation of 
cause and effect the law of the universe, subjecting 
to its mechanism the moral world no less than the 
material or physical. It follows that all is nature . 
Thus, though few writers use the term Spirit more 
frequently, they in effect deny its existence, and 
evacuate the term of all its proper meaning. With 
such a system not the wit of man nor all the theodi- 
cies ever framed by human ingenuity, before and since 
the attempt of the celebrated Leibnitz, can reconcile 
the sense of responsibility, nor the fact of the difference 
in kind between regret and remorse. The same com- 
pulsion of consequence drove the fathers of modern 
(or pseudo) Calvinism to the origination of holiness 
in power, of justice in right of property, and what- 
ever other outrages on the common sense and moral 
feelings of mankind they have sought to cover under 
the fair name of Sovereign Grace. 

I will not take on me to defend sundry harsh 
and inconvenient expressions in the works of Calvin. 
Phrases equally strong, and assertions not less rash 
and startling, are no rarities in the writings of Luther : 
for catachresis was the favourite figure of speech in 
that age. But let not the opinions of either on this 
most fundamental subject be confounded with the 
New-England system, now entitled Calvinistic. The 
fact is simply this. Luther considered the preten- 
sions to free-will boastful, and better suited to the 
44 budge doctors of the Stoic Fur," than to the 
preachers of the Gospel, whose great theme is the 
redemption of the will from slavery ; the restoration 
of the will to perfect freedom being the end and con- 
summation of the redemptive process, and the same 
with the entrance of the soul into glory, that is, its 



118 AIDS TU INFLECTION. 

union with Christ; " glory " (John xvii. 5) being one 
of the names or tokens or symbols of the spiritual 
Messiah. Prospectively to this we are to understand 
the words of our Lord, At that clay ye shall know that 
I am in my Father, and ye in me, (John xiv. 20 :) the 
freedom of a finite will being possible under this con- 
dition only, that it has become one with the will oi 
God. Now as the difference of a captive and enslaved 
will, and no will at all, such is the difference between 
the Lutheranism of Calvin and the Calvinism of 
Jonathan Edwards. 



APHORISM II. 

LEIGHTOM. 

There is nothing in religion farther out of nature's 
reach, and more remote from the natural man's liking 
and believing, than the doctrine of redemption by a 
Saviour, and by a crucified Saviour. It is compara- 
tively easy to persuade men of the necessity of an 
amendment of conduct ; it is more difficult to make 
them see the necessity of repentance in the Gospel 
sense, the necessity of a change in the principle of 
action ; but to convince men of the necessity of the 
death of Christ is the most difficult of all. And yet 
the first is but varnish and whitewash without the 
second ; and the second but a barren notion without 
the last. Alas ! of those who admit the doctrine in 
words, how large a number evade it in fact, and 
empty it of all its substance and efficacy, making the 
effect the efficient cause, or attributing their election 
to salvation to supposed foresight of their faith and 
obedience. But it is most vain to imagine a faith in 
such and such men, which, being foreseen by God, 
determined him to elect them for salvation : were it 
only that nothing at all is future, or can have this 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 119 

imagined futurition, but as it is decreed, and because 
it is decreed, by God so to be. 



No impartial person, competently acquainted with 
the history of the Keformation, and the works of the 
earlier Protestant divines at home and abroad, even 
to the close of Elizabeth's reign, will deny that the 
doctrines of Calvin on redemption and the natural 
state of fallen man, are in all essential points the 
same as those of Luther, Zuinglius, and the first 
Reformers collectively. These doctrines have, how- 
ever, since the re-establishment of the Episcopal 
Church at the return of Charles II., been as gene- 
rally* exchanged for what is commonly entitled 

* At a period in which Bishop Marsh and Dr. Wordsworth 
have, by the zealous on one side, been charged with Popish 
principles on account of their anti-bibliolatry, and, on the 
other, the sturdy adherents of the doctrines common to 
Luther and Calvin, and the literal interpreters of the Articles 
and Homilies, are — (I wish I could say, altogether without 
any fault of their own) — regarded by the Clergy generally as 
virtual schismatics, dividers of, though not from, the Church, 
— it is serving the cause of charity to assist in circulating the 
following instructive passage from the Life of Bishop Hacket, 
respecting the disputes between the Augustinians, or 
Luthero-Calvinistic divines, and the Grotians of his age : in 
which controversy (says his biographer) he, Hacket, "was 
ever very moderate." 

"But having been bred under Bishop Davenant and 
Dr. Ward in Cambridge, he was addicted to their sentiments. 
Archbishop Ussher would say, that Davenant understood 
those controversies better than ever any man did since 
St. Augustine. But he (Bishop Hacket) used to say, that he 
was sure he had three excellent men of his opinion in this 
controversy ; 1. Padre Paolo (Father Paul) whose letter is 
extant in Heinsius, anno 1604. 2. Thomas Aquinas. 3. St. 
Augustine. But besides and above them all, he believed in 



120 AIDfl TO REFLECTION. 

Arminianism, but which, taken as a complete and 
explicit scheme of belief, it would be both histo- 
rically and theologically more accurate to call Gro 
tianism, or Christianity according to Grotius. The 
change was not, we may readily believe, effected 
without a struggle. In the Romish Church this 
latitudinarian system, patronised by the Jesuits, was 
manfully resisted by Jansenius, Arnauld, and Pascal; 
in our own Church by the Bishops Davenant, 
Sanderson, Hall, and the Archbishops Ussher and 
Leighton : and in the latter half of the preceding 
Aphorism the Reader has a specimen of the reason- 
ings by which Leighton strove to invalidate or coun- 
terpoise the reasonings of the innovators. 

Passages of this sort are, however, of rare occur- 
rence in Leighton 's works. Happily for thousands, 
he was more usefully employed in making his readers 
feel that the doctrines in question, Scripturally treated 
and taken as co-organised parts of a great organic 
whole, need no such reasonings. And better still 
would it have been, had he left them altogether for 

his conscience that St. Paul was of the same mind likewise. 
Yet at the same time he would profess that he disliked no 
Arminians but such as revile and defame every one who is 
not so ; and he would often commend Arminius himself for 
his excellent wit and parts, but only tax his want of reading 
and knowledge in antiquity. And he ever held, it was the 
foolishest thing in the world to say the Arminians were 
Popishly inclined, when so many Dominicans and Jansenists 
were rigid followers of Augustine in these points : and no 
less foolish to say that the Ant i- Arminians were Puritans and 
Presbyterians, when Ward, and Davenant, and Prideaux, 
and Browning, those stout champions for Episcopacy, were 
decided An ti- Arminians : while Arminius himself was ever 
a Presbyterian. Therefore he greatly commended the mo- 
deration of our Church, which extended equal communion 
to both " 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 121 

those, who, severally detaching the great features of 
Revelation from the living context of Scripture, do 
by that very act destroy their life and purpose. And 
then, like the eyes of the Indian spider,* they 
become clouded microscopes, to exaggerate and dis- 
tort all the other parts and proportions. No offence 
then will be occasioned, I trust, by the frank avowal 
that I have given to the preceding passage a place 
among the spiritual Aphorisms for the sake of com- 
ment : the following remarks having been the first 
marginal note I had pencilled on Leighton's pages, 
and thus (remotely, at least), the occasion of the 
present Work. 

Leighton, I observed, throughout his inestimable 
Work, avoids all metaphysical views of Election, 
relatively to God, and confines himself to the doc- 
trine in its relation to man ; and in that sense too, 
in which every Christian may judge of it who strives 
to be sincere with his own heart. The following 
may, I think, be taken as a safe and useful rule in 
religious inquiries. Ideas, that derive their origin 
and substance from the moral being, and to the re- 
ception of which as true objectively (that is, as corre- 
sponding to a reality out of the human mind) we are 
determined by a practical interest exclusively, may 
not, like theoretical positions, be pressed onward 
into all their logical consequences. f The law of 

* Aranea prodigiosa. See Baker's Microscopic Expe- 
riments. 

f Perhaps this rule may be expressed more intelligibly (to 
a mathematician at least) thus : — Reasoning from finite to 
finite on a basis of truth; also, reasoning from infinite to 
infinite on a basis of truth, — will always lead to truth as intelli- 
gibly as the basis on which such truths respectively rest. "While 
reasoning from finite to infinite, or from infinite to finite, will 
lead to apparent absurdity, although the basis be true : and 



122 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

conscience, and not the canons of discursive reasoning, 
must decide in such cases. At least, the latter have 
no validity, which the single veto of the former is not 
sufficient to nullify. The most pious conclusion is 
here the most legitimate. 

It is too seldom considered, though most worthy of 
consideration, how far even those ideas or theories of 
pure speculation, that bear the same name with the 
objects of religious faith, are indeed the same. Out 
of the principles necessarily presumed in all discur- 
sive thinking, and which being, in the first place, 
universal, and secondly, antecedent to every parti 
cular exercise of the understanding, are therefore 
referred to the reason, the human mind (wherever its 
powers are sufficiently developed, and its attention 
strongly directed to speculative or theoretical inqui- 
ries) forms certain essences, to which for its own 
purposes it gives a sort of notional subsistence. 
Hence they are called entia rationalia : the conversion 
of which into entia realia, or real objects, by aid of 
the imagination, has in all times been the fruitful 
stock of empty theories and mischievous superstitions, 
of surreptitious premisses and extravagant conclusions. 
For as these substantiated notions were in many 
instances expressed by the same terms as the objects 
of religious faith; as in most instances they were 
applied, though deceptively, to the explanation of 
real experiences ; and lastly, from the gratifications 
which the pride and ambition of man received from 
the supposed extension of his knowledge and insight; 
it was too easily forgotten or overlooked, that the 
stablest and most indispensable of those notional 
beings were but the necessary forms of thinking, 
takenabstractedly : and that like the breadthless lines, 

is not such, apparent absurdity another expression for " truth 
unintelligible by a finite mind ?" 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION 123 

depthless surfaces, and perfect circles of geometry, 
they subsist wholly and solely in and for the mind 
that contemplates them. Where the evidence of the 
senses fails us, and beyond the precincts of sensible 
experience, there is no reality attributable to any 
notion, but what is given to it by Revelation, or the law 
of conscience, or the necessary interests of morality. 

Take an instance : 

It is the office, and as it were, the instinct of 
reason, to bring a unity into all our conceptions and 
several knowledges. On this all system depends; 
and without this we could reflect connectedly neither 
on nature nor our own minds. Now this is possible 
only on the assumption or hypothesis of a One as the 
ground and cause of the universe, and which, in all 
succession and through all changes, is the subject 
neither of time nor change. The One must be con- 
templated as eternal and immutable. 

Well! the idea, which is the basis of religion, 
commanded by the conscience and required by mo- 
rality, contains the same truths, or at least truths 
that can be expressed in no other terms ,* but this 
idea presents itself to our mind with additional attri- 
butes, and those too not formed by mere abstraction 
and negation — with the attributes of holiness, pro- 
vidence, love, justice, and mercy. It comprehends, 
moreover, the independent (extra-mundane) existence 
and personality of the Supreme One, as our Creator, 
Lord, and Judge. 

The hypothesis of a one ground and principle of 
the universe (necessary as an hypothesis, but having 
mily a logical and conditional necessity), is thus raised 
into the idea of the Living God, the supreme object 
of our faith, love, fear, and adoration. Religion and 
morality do indeed constrain us to declare him eter- 
nal and immutable. But if from the eternity of the 



121 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Supreme Being a reasoner should deduce the impos- 
sibility of a creation ; or conclude with Aristotle, that 
the creation was co-eternal ; or, like the later Plato- 
nists, should turn creation into emanation, and make 
the universe proceed from the Deity, as the sunbeams 
from the solar orb; — or if from the divine immuta 
bility he should infer that all prayer and supplication 
must be vain and superstitious ; then however evident 
and logically necessary such conclusions may appear, 
it is scarcely worth our while to examine, whether they 
are so or not. The positions must be false. For 
were they true, the idea would lose the sole ground 
of its reality. It would be no longer the idea in- 
tended by the believer in his premiss — in the 
premiss, with which alone religion and morality are 
concerned. The very subject of the discussion would 
be changed. It would no longer be the God, in 
whom we believe ; but a stoical Fate, or the super- 
essential One of Plotinus, to whom neither intelli- 
gence, nor self-consciousness, nor life, nor even being 
can be attributed ; or lastly, the World itself, the 
indivisible one and only substance (substantia una et 
unica) of Spinoza, of which all 'phanomena^ all parti- 
cular and individual things, lives, minds, thoughts, 
and actions are but modifications. 

Let the believer never be alarmed by objections 
wholly speculative, however plausible on speculative 
grounds such objections may appear, if he can but 
satisfy himself, that the result is repugnant to the 
dictates of conscience, and irreconcilable with the 
interests of morality. For to baffle the objector we 
have only to demand of him, by what right and 
under what authority he converts a thought into a 
substance, or asserts the existence of a real some- 
what corresponding to a notion not derived from 
the experience of his senses. It will be to no 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 125 

purpose for him to answer that it is a legitimate 
notion. The notion may have its mould in the 
understanding ; hut its realisation must be the work 
of the fancy. 

A reflecting reader will easily apply these remarks 
to the subject of Election, one of the stumbling stones 
in the ordinary conceptions of the Christian Faith, 
to which the Infidel points in scorn, and which far 
better men pass by in silent perplexity. Yet, surely, 
from mistaken conceptions of the doctrine. I suppose 
the person, with whom I am arguing, already so far 
a believer, as to have convinced himself, both that a 
state of enduring bliss is attainable under certain 
conditions ; and that these conditions consist in his 
compliance with the directions given and rules pre- 
scribed in the Christian Scriptures. These rules he 
likewise admits to be such, that, by the very law and 
constitution of the human mind, a full and faithful 
compliance with them cannot but have consequences 
of some sort or other. But these consequences are 
moreover distinctly described, enumerated, and pro- 
mised in the same Scriptures, in which the conditions 
are recorded ; and though some of them may be 
apparent to God only, yet the greater number of 
them are of such a nature that they cannot exist 
unknown to the individual, in and for whom they 
exist. As little possible is it, that he should find 
these consequences in himself, and not find in them 
the sure marks and the safe pledges that he is at the 
time in the right road to the life promised under 
these conditions. Now I dare assert that no such 
man, however fervent his charity, and however deep 
his humility may be, can peruse the records of 
history with a reflecting spirit, or look round, the 
world with an observant eye, and not find himself 
compelled to admit, that all men are not on the right 



126 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

road. He cannot help judging that even in Christian 
countries many, — a fearful many, — have not their 
faces turned toward it. 

This then is a mere matter of fact. Now comes 
the question. Shall the believer, who thus hopes 
on the appointed grounds of hope, attribute this 
distinction exclusively to his own resolves and 
strivings, — or if not exclusively, yet primarily and 
principally ? Shall he refer the first movements 
and preparations to his own will and under- 
standing, and bottom his claim to the promises on 
his own comparative excellence? If not, if no man 
dare take this honour to himself, to whom shall he 
assign it, if not to that Being in whom the promise 
originated, and on whom its fulfilment depends? If 
he stop here, who shall blame him ? By what 
argument shall his reasoning be invalidated, that 
might not be urged with equal force against any 
essential difference between obedient and disobedient, 
Christian and worldling; — that would not imply 
that both sorts alike are, in the sight of God, the 
sons of God by adoption? If he stop here, I say, 
who shall drive him from his position? For thus 
far he is practically concerned ; — this the conscience 
requires ; this the highest interests of morality 
demand. It is a question of facts, of the will and 
the deed, to argue against which on the abstract 
notions and possibilities of the speculative reason, is 
as unreasonable as an attempt to decide a question 
of colours by pure geometry, or to unsettle the classes 
and specific characters of natural history by the doc- 
trine of fluxions. 

But if the self-examinant will abandon this posi- 
tion, and exchange the safe circle of religion and 
practical reason for the shifting sand-wastes and 
mirages of speculative theology; if instead of seeking 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 127 

after the marks of Election in himself, he undertakes 
to determine the ground and origin, the possibility 
and mode of Election itself in relation to God ; — in 
this case, and whether he does it for the satisfaction 
of curiosity, or from the ambition of answering those. 
who would call God himself to account, why and by 
what right certain souls were born in Africa instead 
of England ; or why — (seeing that it is against all 
reason and goodness to choose a worse, when, being 
omnipotent, He could have created a better) — God 
did not create beasts men, and men angels ; — or why 
God created any men but with foreknowledge of their 
obedience, and left any occasion for Election ; — in 
this case, I say, we can only regret that the inquirer 
had not been better instructed in the nature, the 
bounds, the true purposes and proper objects of his 
intellectual faculties, and that he had not previously 
asked himself, by what appropriate sense, or organ 
of knowledge, he hoped to secure an insight into a 
nature which was neither an object of his senses, 
nor a part of his self-consciousness ; and so leave 
him to ward off shadowy spears with the shadow of a 
shield, and to retaliate the nonsense of blasphemy 
with the abracadabra of presumption. He that will 
fly without wings must fly in his dreams : and til] 
he awakes, will not find out that to fly in a dream is 
but to dream of flying. 

Thus then the doctrine of Election is in itself a 
necessary inference from an undeniable fact — neces- 
sary at least for all who hold that the best of men 
are what they are through the grace of God. In 
relation to the believer it is a hope, which if it spring 
out of Christian principles, be examined by the 
tests and nourished by the means prescribed in 
Scripture, will become a lively and an assured hope, 
but which cannot in this life pass into knowledge, 



128 AIDS TO HEFLECTION. 

much less certainty of foreknowledge. The contrary 
belief does indeed make the article of Election both 
tool and parcel of a mad and mischievous fanaticism. 
But with what force and clearness does not the Apostle 
confute, disclaim, and prohibit the pretence, treating 
it as a downright contradiction in terms ! See Bom. 
viii. 24. 

But though I hold the doctrine handled as 
Leighton handles it (that is practically, morally, 
humanly), rational, safe, and of essential importance, 
I see reasons* resulting from the peculiar circum- 
stances, under which St. Paul preached and wrote, 
why a discreet minister of the Gospel should avoid 
the frequent use of the term, and express the 
meaning in other words perfectly equivalent and 
equally Scriptural ; lest in saying truth he may convey 
error. 

Had my purpose been confined to one particular 

* For example : at the date of St. Paul's Epistles, the 
Roman world may be resembled to a mass in the furnace in 
the first moment of fusion, here a speck and there a spot of 
the melted metal shining pure and brilliant amid the scum 
and dross. To have received the name of Christian was a 
privilege, a high and distinguishing favour. No wonder 
therefore, that in St. Paul's writings the words, Elect and 
Election often, nay, most often, mean the same as iKKa\ov/j.€yoi, 
ecclesia, that is, those who have been called out of the world : 
and it is a dangerous perversion of the Apostle's word to 
interpret it in the sense, in which it was used by our Lord, 
viz. in opposition to the called. (Many are called but few 
chosen.) In St. Paul's sense and at that time the believers 
collectively formed a small and select number ; and every 
Christian, real or nominal, was one of the elect. Add too, 
that this ambiguity is increased by the accidental circum- 
stance, that the Kyriac, aides Dominica;, Lord's House, kirk; 
and ecclesia, the sum total of the iKKaXov/xevoi, cvocati, called 
out ; are both rendered by the same word, Church. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 129 

tenet, an apology might be required for so long a 
comment. Bat the Reader will, I trust, have already 
perceived, that my object has been to establish a 
general rule of interpretation and vindication appli- 
cable to all doctrinal tenets, and especially to the (so 
called) mysteries of the Christian Faith : to provide 
a safety-lamp for religious inquirers. Now this I find 
in the principle, that all revealed truths are to be 
judged of by us, so far only as they are possible sub- 
jects of human conception, or grounds of practice, or 
in some way connected with our moral and spiritual 
interests. In order to have a reason for forming a 
judgment on any given article, we must be sure that 
we possess a reason, by and according to which a 
judgment may be formed. Now in respect of all 
truths, to which a real independent existence is 
assigned, and which yet are not contained in, or to be 
imagined under, any form of space or time, it is 
strictly demonstrable, that the human reason, consi- 
dered abstractly, as the source of positive science 
and theoretical insight, is not such a reason. At the 
utmost, it has only a negative voice. In other words, 
nothing can be allowed as true for the human mind, 
which directly contradicts this reason. But even 
here, before we admit the existence of any such con- 
tradiction, we must be careful to ascertain, that there 
is no equivocation in play, that two different subjects 
are not confounded under one and the same word. 
A striking instance of this has been adduced in the 
difference between the notional One of the Ontolo- 
gists, and the idea of the living God. 

But if not the abstract or speculative reason, and 
yet a reason there must be in order to a rational 
belief — then it must be the practical reason of man, 
comprehending the will, the conscience, the moral 
being with its inseparable interests and affections — 



* J 30 AIDS TO RK FLECTION. 

that reason, namely, which is the organ of wisdom, 
and, as far as man is concerned, the source of living 
and actual truths. 

From these premisses we may further deduce, that 
every doctrine is to be interpreted in reference to 
those, to whom it has been revealed, or who have or 
have had the means of knowing or hearing the same. 
For instance : the doctrine that there is no name 
under heaven, by tvhich a man can be saved, but the 
name of Jesus. If the word here rendered name, 
may be understood — (as it well may, and as in other 
texts it must be) — as meaning the power, or origina- 
ting cause, I see no objection on the part of the 
practical reason to our belief of the declaration in its 
whole extent. It is true universally or not true at 
all. If there be any redemptive power not contained 
in the power of Jesus, then Jesus is not the Redeemer* 
not the Redeemer of the world, not the Jesus, that is, 
Saviour of mankind. But if with Tertullian and 
Augustine we make the text assert the condemnation 
and misery of all who are not Christians by Baptism 
and explicit belief in the revelation of the New 
Covenant — then, I say, the doctrine is true to all 
intents and purposes. It is true, in every respect, in 
which any practical, moral, or spiritual interest 01 
end can be connected with its truth. It is true in 
respect to every man who has had, or who might 
have had, the Gospel preached to him. It is true 
and obligatory for every Christian community and for 
every individual believer, wherever the opportunity is 
afforded of spreading the light of the Gospel, and 
making known the name of the only Saviour and 
Redeemer. For even though the uninformed Hea- 
thens should not perisn, the guilt of their perishing 
will attach to those who not only had no certainty of 
their safety, but who are commanded to act on the 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 131 

supposition of the contrary. But if, on the other- 
hand, a theological dogmatist should attempt to per- 
suade me that this text was intended to give us an 
historical knowledge of God's future actions and 
dealings — and for the gratification of our curiosity to 
inform us, that Socrates and Phocion, together with 
all the savages in the woods and w T ilds of Africa and 
America, will be sent to keep company with the 
Devil and his angels in everlasting torments — I 
should remind him, that the purpose of Scripture 
was to teach us our duty, not to enable us to sit in 
judgment on the souls of our fellow creatures. 

One other instance will, I trust, prevent all mis- 
conception of my meaning. I am clearly convinced, 
that the Scriptural and only true* idea of God will, 
in its development, be found to involve the idea of the 
Tri-unity. But I am likewise convinced that previ- 
ously to the promulgation of the Gospel the doctrine 
had no claim on the faith of mankind : though it 
might have been a legitimate contemplation for a 
speculative philosopher, a theorem in metaphysics 
valid in the Schools. 

I form a certain notion in my mind, and say : 
This is w 7 hat I understand by the term, God. From 
books and conversation I find that the learned gene- 
rally connect the same notion with the same word. I 
then apply the rules laid down by the masters of 
logic, for the involution and evolution of terms, and 
prove (to as many as agree with me in my premisses) 
that the notion, God, involves the notion, Trinity. I 
now pass out of the Schools, and enter into discourse 

* Or, I may add, any idea which does not either identify 
the Creator with the creation ; or else represent the Supreme 
Being as a mere impersonal Law or ordo ordinans, differing 
from the law of gravitation only by its universality. 

K 2 



132 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

with some friend or neighbour, unversed in the formal 
sciences, unused to the process of abstraction, neither 
logician nor metaphysician ; but sensible and single- 
minded, an Israelite indeed, trusting in the Lord God 
of his fathers, even the God of Abraham, of Isaac, 
and of Jacob. If I speak of God to him, what will 
he understand me to be speaking of? What does 
he mean, and suppose me to mean, by the word? An 
accident or product of the reasoning faculty, or an 
abstraction which the human mind forms by reflect- 
ing on its own thoughts and forms of thinking? No. 
By God he understands me to mean an existing and 
self subsisting reality,* a real and personal Being — 

* I have elsewhere remarked on the assistance which 
those that labour after distinct conceptions would receive 
from the reintroduction of the terms objective and subjective, 
objective and subjective reality, and the like, as substitutes for 
real and notional, and to the exclusion of the false antithesis 
between real and ideal. For the student in that noblest of 
the sciences, the scire teipsum, the advantage would be espe- 
cially great.* The few sentences that follow, in illustration 
of the terms here advocated, will not, I trust, be a waste of 
the reader's time. 

The celebrated Euler having demonstrated certain pro- 
perties of arches, adds : " All experience is in contradiction 
to this ; but this is no reason for doubting its truth." The 
words sound paradoxical ; but mean no more than this — 
that the mathematical properties of figure and space are not 
less certainly the properties of figure and space because 
they can never be perfectly realised, in wood, stone, or iron. 
Now this assertion of Euler's might be expressed at once, 
briefly and simply, by saying, that the properties in question 
were subjectively true, though not objectively — or that the 



* See the "Selection from Mr. Coleridge's Literary 
Correspondence," Letter II., reprinted in " Lectures on 
Shakespeare," vol. ii., pp. 281 — 305. — Ed. 



ON SrilliTUAIi RELIGION. 133. 

even the Person, the i am, who sent Moses to his 
forefathers in Egypt. Of the actual existence of this 
divine Being he has the same historical assurance as 

mathematical arch possessed a subjective reality though 
incapable of being realised objectively. 

In like manner if I had to express my conviction that 
space was not itself a thing, but a mode or form of per- 
ceiving, or the inward ground and condition in the perci- 
pient, in consequence of which things are seen as outward 
and co-existing, I convey this at once by the words : — Space 
is subjective, or space is real in and for the subject alone. 

If I am asked, Why not say, in and for the mind, which 
every one would understand ? I reply : we know indeed, 
that all minds are subjects ; but are by no means certain 
that all subjects are minds. For a mind is a subject that 
knows itself, or a subject that is its own object.* 

The inward principle of growth and individual form in 
every seed and plant is a subject, and without any exertion 
of poetic privilege poets may speak of the soul of the 
flower. But the man would be a dreamer, who otherwise 
than poetically should speak of roses and lilies as self- 
conscious subjects. Lastly, by the assistance of the term3, 
Object and Subject, thus used as correspondent opposites, 
or as negative and positive in physics, — (for example 
negative and positive electricity,) — we may arrive at the 
distinct import and proper use of the strangely misused 
word, Idea. And as the forms of logic are all borrowed 
from geometry — (ratiocinatio discursiva formas suas sive 
canonas recipit ab intuitu)— I may be permitted thence to 
elucidate my present meaning. Every line may be, and by 



* A dditional note. — Nay, the distinction has an important 
function in science as supplying the clearest and simplest 
definition of Life as distinguished from Mind : vis., Mind is 
a subject that has its object in itself: Life, a subject endued 
with the tendency to produce an object for itself; and the 
■finding of itself therein is sensation. 

Empfindung. How do you find yourself] 



134 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

of theirs ; confirmed indeed by the book of Nature, 
as soon and as far as that stronger and better light 
has taught him to read and construe it — confirmed 

the ancient Geometricians was, considered as a point pro- 
duced, the two extremes being its poles, while the point 
itself remains in, or is at least represented by, the mid 
point, the indifference of the two poles or correlative oppo- 
sites. Logically applied, the two extremes or poles are 
named thesis and antithesis. Thus in the line, 

I 

T A 

we have T = thesis, A = antithesis, and Iz=punctumindifferens 
sive amphotericum, which latter is to be conceived as both in 
as far as it may be either of the two former. Observe : not 
both at the same time in the same relation : for this would 
be the identity of T and A, not the indifference ; but so, 
that relatively to A, I is equal to T, and relatively to T, it 
becomes — A. For the purposes of the universal Noetic, in 
which we require terms of most comprehension and least 
specific import, the Noetic Pentad might, perhaps, be, — 
1. Prothesis. 
2. Thesis. 4. Mesothesis. 3. Antithesis. 

5. Synthesis. 
Prothesis. 
Sum. 
Thesis. Mesothesis. Antithesis. 

Res. Agere. Ago, Patior. 

Synthesis. 
Agens. 

1. Verb substantive ==. Prothesis, as expressing the identity 
or co-inherence of act and being. 

2. Substantive == Thesis, expressing being. 3. Verb = An- 
tithesis, expressing act. 4. Infinitive = Mesothesis, as being 
either substantive or verb, or both at once, only in different 
relations. 5. Participle — Synthesis. Thus, in chemistry, 
sulphuretted hydrogen is an acid relatively to the more 
powerful alkalis, and an alkali relatively to a powerful acid. 
Yet one other remark and I pass to the question. In order 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 185 

by it, I say, but not derived from it. Now by what 
right can I require this man — (and of such men the 
great majority of serious believers consisted previously 

to render the constructions of pure mathematics applicable 
to philosophy, the Pythagoreans, I imagine, represented the 
line as generated, or, as it were, radiated, by a point not 
contained in the line but independent, and (in the language 
of that School) transcendant to all production, which it 
caused but did not partake in. Facit, non patitur. This was 
the punctum invisibile et prcesuppositum : and in this way the 
Pythagoreans guarded against the error of Pantheism, into 
which the later Schools fell. The assumption of this point I 
call the logical prothesis. "We have now therefore four relations 
of thought expressed : 1. Prothesis, or the identity of T and 
A, which is neither, because in it, as the transcendant of both, 
both are contained and exist as one. Taken absolutely, this 
finds its application in the Supreme Being alone, the Pytha- 
gorean Tetractys ; the ineffable name, to which no image can 
be attached; the point, which has no (real) opposite or counter- 
point. But relatively taken and inadequately, the germinal 
power of every seed might be generalised under the relation 
of Identity. 2. Thesis, or position. 3. Antithesis, or oppo- 
sition. 4. Indifference. To which when we add the Synthesis 
or composition, in its several forms of equilibrium, as in 
quiescent electricity ; of neutralisation, as of oxygen and 
hydrogen in water ; and of predominance, as of hydrogen 
and carbon with hydrogen predominant, in pure alcohol ; or 
of carbon and hydrogen, with the comparative predominance 
of the carbon, in oil ; we complete the five most general 
forms or preconceptions of constructive logic. 

And now for the answer to the question, what is an Idea, 
if it mean neither an impression on the senses, nor a definite 
conception, nor an abstract notion ? (And if it does mean 
any one of these, the word is superfluous : and while it 
remains undetermined which of these is meant by the word, 
or whether it is not which you please, it is worse than super- 
fluous.)*" But supposing the word to have a meaning of its 



See the '-'Statesman's Manual," Appendix adfinem. — Ed. 



136 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

to the light of the Gospel) — to receive a notion 
of mine, wholly alien from his hahits of thinking, 
because it may be logically deduced from another 
notion, with which he was almost as little ac- 
quainted, and not at all concerned ? Grant for a 
moment, that the latter (that is, the notion, with 
which I first set out) as soon as it is combined with 
the assurance of a corresponding reality becomes 
identical with the true and effective Idea of God ! 
Grant, that in thus realising the notion I am war- 
ranted by revelation, the law of conscience, and the 
interests and necessities of my moral being ! Yet 
by what authority, by what inducement, am I entitled 
to attach the same reality to a second notion, a notion 
drawn from a notion ? It is evident, that if I have 
the same right, it must be on the same grounds. 
Revelation must have assured it, my conscience 
required it — or in some way or other I must have an 
interest in this belief. It must concern me, as a 
moral and responsible being. Now these grounds 
were first given in the redemption of mankind by 
Christ, the Saviour and Mediator : and by the utter 
incompatibility of these offices with a mere creature. 
On the doctrine of Redemption depends the faith, 
the duty, of believing in the divinity of our Lord. 
And this again is the strongest ground for the reality 

own, what does it mean 1 What is an idea 1 In answer to 
this I commence with the absolutely Eeal as the prothesis ; 
the subjectively Real as the thesis ; the objectively Real as 
the antithesis; and I affirm, that Idea is the indifference of 
the two — so namely, that if it be conceived as in the subject, 
the idea is an object, and possesses objective truth ; but if in 
an object, it is then a subject and is necessarily thought of as 
exercising the powers of a subject. Thus an idea conceived 
as subsisting in an object becomes a law; and a law contem. 
plated subjectively in a mind is an idea. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION 157 

of that Idea, in which alone this divinity can be 
received without breach of the faith in the unity of 
the Godhead. But such is the Idea of the Trinity 
Strong as the motives are that induce me to defer 
the full discussion of this great article of the Christian 
Creed, I cannot withstand the request of several 
divines, whose situation and extensive services entitle 
them to the utmost deference, that I should so far 
deviate from my first intention as at least to indicate 
the point on which I stand, and to prevent the mis- 
conception of my purpose : as if I held the doctrine 
of the Trinity for a truth which men could be called 
on to believe by mere force of reasoning, indepen- 
dently of any positive Revelation. Now though it 
might be sufficient to say, that I regard the very 
phrase " Revealed Religion " as a pleonasm, inasmuch 
as a religion not revealed is, in my judgment, no 
religion at all ; I have no objection to announce more 
particularly and distinctly what I do and what I do 
not maintain on this point : provided that in the 
following paragraph, with this view inserted, the 
Reader will look for nothing more than a plain 
statement of my opinions. The grounds on which 
they rest, and the arguments by which they are to be 
vindicated, are for another place. 

I hold then, it is true, that all the so called de- 
monstrations of a God either prove too little, as that 
from the order and apparent purpose in nature ; or 
too much, namely, that the World is itself God : or 
they clandestinely involve the conclusion in the pre- 
misses, passing off the mere analysis or explication of 
an assertion for the proof of it, — a species of logical 
legerdemain not unlike that of the jugglers at a fair, 
who putting into their mouths what seems to be a 
walnut, draw out a score yards of ribbon. On 
this Sophism rest the pretended demonstrations 



138 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

of a God grounded on the postulate of a First 
Cause.* And lastly, in all these demonstrations 
the demonstrators presuppose the idea or concep- 
tion of a God without being able to authenticate 
it, that is, to give an account whence they obtained 
it. For it is clear, that the proof first mentioned and 
the most natural and convincing of all — (the cosmo- 
logical, I mean, or that from the order in nature) — 
presupposes the ontological — that is the proof of a 
God from the necessity and necessary objectivity of the 
Idea. If the latter can assure us of a God as an exist- 
ing reality, the former will go far to prove his power, 
wisdom, and benevolence. f All this I hold. But I 

* Additional note. — The position is, as b : A ', ' c : X, — b . . c 
being the two products, and A, X, the producent causes, i. e., 
as a Watch to the Human Intelligence, so the World to the 
Divine Intelligence. The sceptic objects that neither the 
products nor the producents are ejusdem generis, consequently 
not subjects of analogy ; — A existing only as A -f y, and X 
as X— y. — X# d may differ from Z— yd; namely by y : and 
yet we may reason by analogy from X to Z : thus — H I /, 
similar in kind to E F y, are products of Z by virtue 
of d. But if y were the necessary condition of d, d is pre- 
cluded by - y, and between X — y—d and Z—y — d there is no 
analogy, X=man, y =z finiteness, d = intelligence, Z = God, 
— y=- Infinity. 

+ Additional note. — When the cosmological Proof goes 
further, viz., to prove the existence of a Supreme Being, it 
proceeds on an analogy questionable in both its * factors. 

First the Sceptic impugns the conclusion from things 
made to things that grow (from a watch to a sun-flower) or 
to things -that have no known beginning (the metals, for 
instance), and likewise the inference from the cause of the 
composition of a whole, to the cause of the existence of its 
ultimate particles, as a fierdfiao-is els 'aWo yepos. And again, 
he objects that the difference of the known from the inferred 



* Viz. the Products and the Productors. 



ON SPIKITUAL KELIGION. 139 

also hold, that this truth, the hardest to demonstrate, 
is the one which of all others least needs to be de- 
monstrated ; that though there may be no conclusive 
demonstrations of a good, wise, living, and personal 
God, there are so many convincing reasons for it, 
within and without — a grain of sand sufficing, and 
a whole universe at hand to echo the decision ! — that 
for every mind not devoid of all reason, and despe- 
rately conscience-proof, the truth which it is the least 
possible to prove, it is little less than impossible not 
to believe ; — only indeed just so much short of impos- 
sible, as to leave some room for the will and the moral 
election, and thereby to keep it a truth of religion, and 
the possible subject of a commandment.* 

agent, viz., the finiteness of man contrasted with the infinity 
of God, is the condition and co-efficient cause of that intelli- 
gence in the former which is to constitute the similarity ; 
consequently, the supposed analogy fails in the positive 
Ingredient, i.e., the point of likeness. It is no analogy. You 
infer (Spinosa might say) pure intelligence in a finite being, 
as the cause of a time-piece, an intelligence in an infinite 
being as the cause of a world. But the very intelligence from 
which you draw that inference, is wholly conditioned, and 
in part constituted by that finiteness. 

To invalidate this plea, we must refer to an Idea, of in- 
telligence, having its evidence in itself, and which must be 
shown to be the necessary apposition and antecedent of the 
intelligence, our conception of which is generalised from the 
understandings of men. We must assert an intelligence thab 
neither supposes nor requires a finiteness by imperfection, 
i. e., Reason. But in the attempt we pass out of the cos- 
mological Proof, the Proof a posteriori, and from the facts, 
into the ontological, or the Proof a priori, and from the 
Idea. 

* In a letter to a friend on the mathematical Atheists of 
the French Revolution, La Lande and others, or rather on 
a young man of distinguished abilities, but an avowed 



140 AIDS TO REFLECTION 

On this account I do not demand of a Deist, that 
he should adopt the doctrine of the Trinity. For he 
might very well be justified in replying, that he re 
jected the doctrine, not because it could not be de- 
monstrated, nor yet on the score of any incompre- 
hensibilities and seeming contradictions that might be 
objected to it, as knowing that these might be, and 
in fact had been, urged with equal force against a 
personal God under any form capable of love and 
veneration ; but because he had not the same theo- 
retical necessity, the same interests and instincts of 
reason for the one hypothesis as for the other. It is 
not enough, the Deist might justly say, that there 
is no cogent reason why I should not believe the 
Trinity ; you must show me some cogent reason why 
I should. 

But the case is quite different with a Christian, 
who accepts the Scriptures as the word of God, yet 
refuses his assent to the plainest declarations of these 
Scriptures, and explains away the most express texts 

and proselyting partizan of their tenets, I concluded with 
these words : " The man w T ho will believe nothing but by 
force of demonstrative evidence — (even though it is strictly 
demonstrable that the demonstrability required would coun- 
tervene all the purposes of the truth in question, all that 
render the belief of the same desirable or obligatory) — is not 
in a state of mind to be reasoned with on any subject. But 
if he further denies the fact of the law of conscience, and the 
essential difference between right and wrong, I confess, he 
puzzles me. I cannot without gross inconsistency appeal to 
his conscience and moral sense, or I should admonish him 
that, as an honest man, he ought to advertise himself with a 
Cavete amines/ Scelus sum. And as an honest man myself, I 
dare not advise him on prudential grounds to keep his 
opinions secret, lest I should make myself his accomplice, 
and be helping him on with a wrap rascal." 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 141 

into metaphor and hyperbole, because the literal and 
obvious interpretation is (according to his notions) 
absurd and contrary to reason. He is bound to show, 
that it is so in any sense, not equally applicable tc 
the texts asserting the being, infinity, and personality 
of God the Father, the Eternal and Omnipresent One, 
who created the heaven and the earth. And the more 
is he bound to do this, and the greater is my right to 
demand it of him, because the doctrine of Redemp- 
tion from sin supplies the Christian with motives and 
reasons for the divinity of the Redeemer far more 
concerning and coercive subjectively, that is, in the 
economy of his own soul, than are all the inducements 
that can influence the Deist objectively, that is, in 
the interpretation of nature. 

Do I then utterly exclude the speculative reason 
from theology ? No ! It is its office and rightful pri- 
vilege to determine on the negative truth of whatever 
we are required to believe. The doctrine must not 
contradict any universal principle : for this would be 
a doctrine that contradicted itself. Or philosophy ? 
No. It may be and has been the servant and pioneer 
of faith by convincing the mind that a doctrine is 
cogitable, that the soul can present the idea to itself; 
and that if we determine to contemplate, or think of, 
the subject at all, so and in no other form can this 
be effected. So far are both logic and philosophy to 
be received and trusted. But the duty, and in some 
cases and for some persons even the right, of think- 
ing on subjects beyond the bounds of sensible expe- 
rience ; the grounds of the real truth ; the life, the 
substance, the hope, the love, in one word, the faith ; 
— these are derivatives from the practical- moral, and 
spiritual nature and being of man 



142 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM III. 



BURNET AND COLERIDGE. 

That Religion is designed to improve the nature and 
faculties of man, in order to the right governing of 
our actions, to the securing the peace and progress, 
external and internal, of individuals and of commu- 
nities, and lastly, to the rendering us capable of a 
more perfect state, entitled the kingdom of God, to 
which the present life is probationary — this is a truth, 
which all who have truth only in view, will receive 
on its own evidence. If such tnen be the main end 
of religion altogether (the improvement namely of our 
nature and faculties), it is plain, that every part of 
religion is to be judged by its relation to this main 
end. And since the Christian scheme is religion in 
its most perfect and effective form, a revealed religion, 
and, therefore, in a special sense proceeding from that 
Being who made us and knows what we are, of course 
therefore adapted to the needs and capabilities of hu- 
man nature ; nothing can be a part of this holy Faith 
that is not duly proportioned to this end. 

COMMENT. 

This Aphorism should be borne in mind, whenever 
a theological resolve is proposed to us as an article of 
faith. Take, for instance, the determinations passed 
at the Synod of Dort, concerning the absolute decrees 
of God in connection with his omniscience and fore- 
knowledge. Or take the decision in the Council of 
Trent on Transubstantiation, founded on the difference 
between its two kinds ; the one in which both the 
substance and the accidents are changed, the same 
matter remaining — as in the conversion of water into 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 143 

wine at Cana : the other, in which the matter and the 
substance are changed, the accidents remaining un- 
altered as in the Eucharist — this latter being Tran- 
substantiation far eminence: * — and further that it is 
indispensable to a saving faith carefully to distinguish 
the one kind from the other, and to believe both, and 
to believe the necessity of believing both in order to 
salvation ! For each of these extra- Scriptural articles 
of faith the preceding Aphorism supplies a safe crite- 
rion. Will the belief tend to the improvement of any 
of my moral or intellectual faculties ? But before I 
can be convinced that a faculty will be improved, I 
must be assured that it exists. On all these dark say- 
ings, therefore, of Dort or Trent, it is quite sufficient 
to ask, by what faculty, organ, or inlet of knowledge, 
we are to assure ourselves that the words mean any 
thing, or correspond to any object out of our own 

* ideo persuasum semper in Ecclesia Dei fuit, idque 

nunc denuo sancta hcec Synodus declarat, per consecrationem 
panis et vini conversionem fieri totius substantia panis in sub- 
stantiam corporis Christi Domini nostri, et totius substantias 
vini in substantiam sanguinis ejus. — Sess. xii. c. 4. 

Totus — et integer Christus sub panis specie, et sub quavis ipsius 
speciei parte, totus item sub vini specie, et sub ejus partibus 
existit. — lb. e. 3. 

Si quis dixerit, in sacrosancto Eucharistiaz Sacramento 
zzmanere substantiam panis et vini una cum corpore et sanguine 
Domini nostri Jesio Christi, negaveritque mirabilam illam et 
singularem conversionem totius substantial panis in corpus, et 
totius substantial vini in sanguinem, manentibus duntaxat spe- 
ciebus panis et vini; quam quidem conversionem Catholica 
Ecclesia Transsubstantiationem appellat — Anathema sit. — lb. 
Can. 12. 

Si quis negaverit, in venerabili Sacramento Eucharistiai sub 
tmaquaque specie, et sub singidis cujusque speciei partibus, sepa* 
ratione facta, totum Christum contineri—Anaihema sit.— lb. 
Can. d.—Ed. 



144 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

mind or even in it : unless indeed the mere craving 
and striving to think on, after all the materials for 
thinking have been exhausted, can be called an ob- 
ject. When a number of trust- worthy persons as- 
sure me, that a portion of fluid which they saw to be 
water, by some change in the fluid itself or in their 
senses, suddenly acquired the colour, taste, smell, 
and exhilarating property of wine, I perfectly under- 
stand what they tell me, and likewise by what facul- 
ties they might have come to the knowledge of the 
fact. But if any one of the number, not satisfied 
with my acquiescence in the fact, should insist on 
my believing that the matter remained the same, the 
substance and the accidents having been removed in 
order to make way for a different substance with dif- 
ferent accidents, I must entreat his permission to wait 
till I can discover in myself any faculty, by which 
there can be presented to me a matter distinguishable 
from accidents, and a substance that is different from 
both. It is true, I have a faculty of articulation ; but 
I do not see that it can be improved by my using it 
for the formation of words without meaning, or at 
best, for the utterance of thoughts, that mean only 
the act of so thinking, or of trying so to think. But 
the end of religion is the improvement of our nature 
and faculties. I sum up the whole in one great 
practical maxim. The object of religious contempla- 
tion, and of a truly spiritual faith, is " the ways of 
God to man." Of the workings of the Godhead God 
himsplf has told us, My ways are not as your ways 
nor my thoughts as your thoughts. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 145 



A.PHORISM IY. 

THE CHARACTERISTIC DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DISCIPLINE 
OF THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS AND THE DISPENSATION 
OF THE GOSPEL. 

By undeceiving, enlarging, and informing the intel- 
lect, Philosophy sought to purify and to elevate the 
moral character. Of course, those alone could receive 
the latter and incomparably greater benefit, who by 
natural capacity and favourable contingencies of for- 
tune were fit recipients of the former. How small 
the number, we scarcely need the evidence of history 
to assure us. Across the night of Paganism, Philo- 
sophy flitted on, like the lantern-fly of the Tropics, a 
light to itself, and an ornament, but alas ! no more 
than an ornament, of the surrounding darkness. 

Christianity reversed the order. By means acces- 
sible to all, by inducements operative on all, and by 
convictions, the grounds and materials of which all 
men might find in themselves, her first step was tc 
cleanse the heart. But the benefit did not stop here. 
In preventing the rank vapours that steam up from 
the corrupt heart, Christianity restores the intellect 
likewise to its natural clearness. By relieving the 
mind from the distractions and importunities of the 
unruly passions, she improves the quality of the un- 
derstanding : while at the same time she presents for 
its contemplations objects so great and so bright as 
cannot but enlarge the organ, by which they are con- 
templated. The fears, the hopes, the remembrances, 
the anticipations, the inward and outward experience, 
the belief and the faith, of a Christian, form of them- 
selves a philosophy and a sum of knowledge, which 
a life spent in the Grove of Academus, or the painted 
Porch, could not have attained or collected. The 



146 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

result is contained in the fact of a wide and still 
widening Christendom. 

Yet I dare not say that the effects have been pro- 
portionate to the divine wisdom of the scheme. Too 
soon did the Doctors of the Church forget that the 
heart, the moral nature, was the beginning and the* 
end; and that truth, knorwledge, and insight were 
comprehended in its expansion. This was the truA 
and first apostasy — when in council and synod the 
divine humanities of the Gospel gave way to specu- 
lative systems, and religion became a science of sha- 
dows under the name of theology, or at best a bare 
skeleton of truth, without life or interest, alike inac 
cessible and unintelligible to the majority of Chris- 
tians. For these therefore there remained only rites 
and ceremonies and spectacles, shows and semblances. 
Thus among the learned the substa?ice of things hoped 
for (Heb. xi. 1.) passed off into notions ; and for the 
unlearned the surfaces of things became * substance. 
The Christian world was for centuries divided into the 
many, that did not think at all, and the few who did 
nothing but think — both alike unreflecting, the one 
from defect of the act, the other from the absence of 
an object. 

APHORISM V. 

There is small chance of truth at the goal where 
there is not a child-like humility at the starting-post, 

COMMENT. 

Humility is the safest ground of docility, and do- 
cility the surest promise of docibility. Where there 
is no working of self-love in the heart that secures a 
leaning before hand ; where the great magnet of the 

* Yiriumet proprietatum, quce non nisi de suh-siantibus prce. 
dicari possunt, formis $up>erstantxbus attributio, est Superstitio, 



ON SPIRITUAL KEUGION. 147 

planet is not overwhelmed or obscured by partial 
masses of iron in close neighbourhood to the com- 
pass of the judgment though hidden or unnoticed ; 
there will this great desideratum be found of a child 
like humility Do I then say, that I am to be 
influenced by no interest? Far from it ! There is an 
interest of truth : or how could there be a love of 
truth ? And that a love of truth for its own sake, 
and merely as truth, is possible, my soul bears wit- 
ness to itself in its inmost recesses. But there are 
other interests — those of goodness, of beauty, of uti- 
lity. It would be a sorry proof of the humility I am 
extolling, were I to ask for angels wings to overfly 
my own human nature. I exclude none of these 
It is enough if the " lene clinamen,"' the gentle bias, 
be given by no interest that concerns myself other 
than as I am a man, and included in the great family 
of mankind ; but which does therefore especially con- 
cern me, because being a common interest of all men 
it must needs concern the very essentials of my 
being, and because these essentials, as existing in 
me, are especially intrusted to my particular charge. 
Widely different from this social and truth-attracted 
bias, different both in its nature and its effects, is the 
interest connected with the desire of distinguishing 
} T ourself from other men, in order to be distinguished 
by them. Hoc revera est inter te et veritateni. This 
interest does indeed stand between thee and truth. 
I might add between thee and thy own soul. It is 
scarcely more at variance with the love of truth than 
it is unfriendly to the attainment of it. By your own 
act you have appointed the many as your judges and 
appraisers : for the anxiety to be admired is a love- 
less passion, ever strongest with regard to those by 
whom we are least known and least cared for, loud on 
the hustings, gay in the ball-room, mute and sullen 

l 2 



148 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

at the family fireside. What you have acquired by 
patient thought and cautious discrimination, demands 
a portion of the same effort in those who are to 
receive it from you. But applause and preference 
are things of barter; and if you trade in them, expe- 
rience will soon teach you that there are easier and 
less unsuitable ways to win golden judgments than 
by at once taxing the patience and humiliating the 
self-opinion of your judges. To obtain your end, 
your words must be as indefinite as their thoughts ; 
and how vague and general these are even on objects 
of sense, the few who at a mature age have seriously 
set about the discipline of their faculties, and have 
honestly taken stock, best know by recollection of 
their own state. To be admired you must make 
your auditors believe at least that they understand 
what you say ; which, be assured, they never will, 
under such circumstances, if it be worth understand- 
ing, or if you understand your own soul. But while 
your prevailing motive is to be compared and appre- 
ciated, is it credible, is it possible, that you should in 
earnest seek for a knowledge which is and must 
remain a hidden light, a secret treasure ? Have you 
children, or have you lived among children, and do 
you not know, that in all things, in food, in medicine, 
in all their doings and abstainings they must believe 
in order to acquire a reason for their belief? But so 
is it with religious truths for all men. These we 
must all learn as children. The ground of the pre- 
vailing error on this point is the ignorance, that in 
spiritual concernments to believe and to understand 
are not diverse things, but the same thing in different 
periods of its growth. Belief is the seed, received 
into the will, of which the understanding or know- 
ledge is the flower, and the thing believed is the 
fruit. Unless ye believe ye cannot understand : and 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 149 

unless ye be humble as children, ye not only will not* 
but ye cannot believe. Of such therefore is the 
Kingdom of Heaven. Yea, blessed is the calamity 
that makes us humble : though so repugnant thereto 
is our nature, in our present state, that after a while, 
it is to be feared, a second and sharper calamity 
would be wanted to cure us of our pride in having 
become so humble. 

Lastly, there are among us, though fewer and less 
in fashion than among our ancestors, persons who, 
like Shaftesbury, do not belong to " the herd of 
Epicurus," yet prefer a philosophic paganism to the 
morality of the Gospel. Now it would conduce, me- 
thinks, to the child- like humility we have been dis- 
coursing of, if the use of the term, virtue, in that 
high, comprehensive, and notional sense in which it 
was used by the ancient Stoics, were abandoned, as a 
relic of Paganism, to these modern Pagans : and if 
Christians restoring the word to its original import, 
namely, manhood or manliness, used it exclusively to 
express the quality of fortitude ; strength of character 
in relation to the resistance opposed by nature and 
the irrational passions to the dictates of reason : 
energy of will in preserving the line of rectitude 
tense and firm against the warping forces and trea- 
cheries of temptation. Surely, it were far less 
unseemly to value ourselves on this moral strength 
than on strength of body, or even strength of intellect. 
But we will rather value it for ourselves : and bearing 
in mind the old query, — Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? 
— we will value it the more, yea, then only will we 
allow it true spiritual worth, when we possess it as a 
gift of grace, a boon of mercy undeserved, a fulfilment 
of a free promise (] Cor. x. 13). What more is 
meant in this last paragraph, let the venerable 
"Hooker say for me in the following • — 



150 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM VI. 



What is virtue but a medicine, and vice but a 
wound? Yea, we have so often deeply wounded 
ourselves with medicine, that God hath been fain to 
make wounds medicinable ; to secure by vice where 
virtue hath stricken; to suffer the just man to fall, 
that being raised he may be taught w T hat power it was 
which upheld him standing. I am not afraid to 
affirm it boldly with St. Augustine, that men puffed 
up through a proud opinion of their own sanctity and 
holiness receive a benefit at the hands of God, and 
are assisted with his grace when with his grace they 
are not assisted, but permitted (and that grievously) 
to transgress. Whereby, as they were through over- 
great liking of themselves supplanted [tripped up), so 
the dislike of that which did supplant them may 
establish them afterwards the surer. Ask the very 
soul of Peter, and it shall undoubtedly itself make 
you this answer : My eager protestations made in the 
glory of my spiritual strength I am ashamed of. But 
my shame and the tears, with which my presumption 
and my weakness were bew T ailed, recur in the songs 
of my thanksgiving. My strength had been my 
ruin, my fall hath proved my stay. 

APHORISM VII. 

The being and providence of One Living God, holy, 
gracious, merciful, the Creator and Preserver of all 
things, and a Father of the righteous ; the Moral 
Law in its 1 utmost height, breadth and purity; a 
state of retribution after death; the 2 resurrection of 
the dead ; and a day of Judgment — all these were 
known and received by the Jewish people, as esta- 
blished articles of the national Faith, at or before the 



OX SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 15 1 

proclaiming of Christ by the Baptist. They are the 
ground-work of Christianity, and essentials in the 
Christian Faith, hut not its characteristic and pecu- 
liar doctrines : except indeed as they are confirmed, 
enlivened, realised and brought home to the whole 
being of man, head, heart, and spirit, by the truths 
and influences of the Gospel. 
Peculiar to Christianity are . 

I. The belief that a Mean of Salvation has been 
effected and provided for the human race by the in- 
carnation of the Son of God in the person of Jesus 
Christ; and that his life on earth, his sufferings, 
death, and resurrection, are not only proofs and 
manifestations, but likewise essential and effective 
parts of the great redemptive act, whereby also the 
obstacle from the corruption of our nature is rendered 
no longer insurmountable. 

II. The belief in the possible appropriation of this 
benefit by repentance and faith, including the aids 
that render an effective faith and repentance them- 
selves possible. 

III. The belief in the reception (by as many as 
shall be heirs of salvation) of a living and spiritual 
principle, a seed of life capable of surviving this 
natural life, and of existing in a divine and immortal 
state. 

IV. The belief in the awakening of the spirit in 
them that truly believe, and in the communion of the 
spirit, thus awakened, with the Holy Spirit. 

V. The belief in the accompanying and consequent 
gifts, graces, comforts, and privileges of the Spirit, 
which acting primarily on the heart and will cannot 
but manifest themselves in suitable works of love and 
obedience, that is, in right acts with right affections, 
from right principles. 

VI. Further, as Christians we are taught, that 



152 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

these Works are the appointed signs and evidences 
of our Faith ; and that, under limitation of the power, 
the means, and the opportunities afforded us indivi- 
dually, the} 7 are the rule and measure, by which we 
are bound and enabled to .judge, of what spirit ice are. 
VII. All these, together with the doctrine of the 
Fathers re-proclaimed in the everlasting Gospel, we 
receive in the full assurance, that God beholds and 
will finally judge us with a merciful consideration of 
our infirmities, a gracious acceptance of our sincere 
though imperfect strivings, a forgiveness of our de- 
fects, through the mediation, and a completion of our 
deficiencies by the perfect righteousness, of the Man 
Christ Jesus, even the Word that was in the begin- 
ning with God, and who, being God, became man for 
the redemption of mankind. 

COMMENT. 

I earnestly entreat the Reader to pause awhile, 
and to join with me in reflecting on the preceding 
Aphorism. It has been my aim throughout this 
Work to enforce two points : 1. That Morality arising 
out of the reason and conscience of men, and 
Prudence, which in like manner flows out of the 
understanding and the natural wants and desires of 
the individual, are two distinct things. 2. That 
morality with prudence as its instrument has, consi- 
dered abstractedly, not only a value but a worth 
in itself. Now the question is (and it is a question 
which every man must answer for himself) — From 
what you know of yourself ; of your own heart and 
strength ; and from what history and personal expe- 
rience have led you to conclude of mankind generally ; 
dare you trust to it ? Dare you trust to it ? To it, 
and to it alone? If so, well! It is at your own 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 1 5 3 

risk. I judge you not. Before Him, who cannot be 
mocked, you stand or fall. But if not, if you have had 
too good reason to know that your heart is deceitful 
and your strength weakness : if you are disposed 
to exclaim with Paul — The Law indeed is holy, just, 
good, spiritual ; but I am carnal, sold under sin : for 
that which I do, I allow not, and what I would, that 
I do not ! — in this case, there is a Voice that says, 
Come unto me ; and I will give you rest. This is the 
voice of Christ : and the conditions, under which the 
promise was given by him, are that you believe in 
him, and believe his words. And he has further 
assured you, that if you do so, you will obey him. 
You are, in short, to embrace the Christian Faith as 
your religion — those truths which St. Paul believed 
after his conversion, and not those only which he 
believed no less undoubtingl'y while he was persecut- 
ing Christ and an enemy of the Christian Eeligion. 
"With what consistency could I offer you this Volume 
as aids to reflection, if I did not call on you to ascer- 
tain in^the first instance what these truths are ! But 
these I could not lay before you without first enume- 
rating certain other points of belief, which though 
truths, indispensable truths, and truths compre- 
hended or rather pre-supposed in the Christian 
scheme, are yet not these truths. [John i. 17.) 

While doing this, I was aware that the positions, 
in the first paragraph of the preceding Aphorism, to 
which the numerical marks are affixed, will startle 
some of my readers. Let the following sentences 
serve for the notes corresponding to the marks : 

1 Ye shall be holy ; for I the Lord your God am 
Jiohj * He hath shewed thee, man, what is good ■ 
and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do 

* Lev.xix. 2. -Ed. 



154 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with thy 
God ? * To these summary passages from Moses and 
the Prophet (the first exhibiting the closed, the second 
the expanded, hand of the Moral law) I might add 
the authorities of Grotius and other more orthodox 
and not less learned divines, for the opinion that the 
Lords Prayer was a selection, and the famous passage 
[The hour is coming, &c. John v. 28, 29.] a citation 
by our Lord from the Liturgy of the Jewish Church 
But it will be sufficient to remind the reader, that the 
apparent difference between the prominent moral 
truths of the Old and those of the New Testament 
results from the latter having been written in Greek; 
while the conversations recorded by the Evangelists 
took place in Syro-Chaldaic or Aramaic. Hence it 
happened that where our Lord cited the original text, 
his biographers substituted the Septuagint Version, 
while our English Version is in both instances im- 
mediate and literal — in the Old Testament from the 
Hebrew Original, in the New Testament from the 
freer Greek translation. The text, I give you a new 
commandment, has no connection with the present 
subject. 

2 There is a current mistake on this point likewise, 
though this article of the Jewish belief is not only as- 
serted by St. Paul, but is elsewhere spoken of as com- 
mon to the Twelve Tribes. The mistake consists in 
supposing the Pharisees to have been a distinct sect 
in doctrine, and in strangely over- rating the number 
of the Sadducees. The former w r ere distinguished not 
by holding, as matters of religious belief, articles dif- 
ferent from the Jewish Church at large ; but by their 
pretences to a more rigid orthodoxy, a more scrupu- 
lous performance. They were the strict professors 

* Micah, vi. 8 — Ed. 






ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 15%, 

of the day. The latter, the Sadducees, whose opi 
nions much more nearly resembled those of the Stoics 
than the Epicureans — (a remark that will appear pa- 
radoxical to those only who have abstracted their no- 
tions of the Stoic philosophy from Epictetus, Mark 
Antonine, and certain brilliant inconsistencies of 
Seneca), — were a handful of rich men, Romanised 
Jews, not more numerous than Infidels among us, 
and holden by the people at large in at least equal 
abhorrence. Their great argument was : that the 
belief of a future state of rewards and punishments 
injured or destroyed the purity of the Moral Law for 
the more enlightened classes, and weakened the in- 
fluence of the laws of the land for the people, the 
vulgar multitude. 

I will now suppose the reader to have thoughtfully 
reperused the paragraph containing the tenets pecu- 
liar to Christianity, and if he have his religious 
principles yet to form, I should expect to overhear a 
troubled murmur : How can I comprehend this ? 
How is this to be proved ? To the first question I 
should answer : Christianity is not a theory, or a 
speculation ; but a life ; — not a philosophy of life, but 
a life and a living process. To the second : Try it. 
It has been eighteen hundred years in existence : and 
has one individual left a record, like the following : — 
" I tried it : and it did not answer. I made the ex- 
periment faithfully according to the directions ; and 
the result has been, a conviction of my own credu- 
lity?" Have you, in your own experience, met with 
any one in whose words you could place full confi- 
dence, and who has seriously affirmed : — " I have 
given Christianity a fair trial. I was aware, that 
its promises were made only conditionally. But my 
heart bears, me witness, that I have to the utmost 



156* AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

of my power complied with these conditions. Both 
outwardly and in the discipline of my inward acts 
and affections, I have performed the duties which it 
enjoins, and I have used the means which it pre- 
scribes. Yet my assurance of its truth has received 
no increase. Its 'promises have not been fulfilled : 
and I repent of my delusion ? " If neither your own 
experience nor the history of almost two thousand 
years has presented a single testimony to this pur- 
port ; and if you have read and heard of many who 
have lived and died bearing witness to the contrary : 
and if you have yourself met with some one, in whom 
on any other point you would place unqualified trust, 
who has on his own experience made report to you, 
that He is faithful who promised, and what He pro- 
mised He has proved Himself able to perform : is it 
bigotry, if I fear that the unbelief, which prejudges 
and prevents the experiment, has its source else- 
where than in the uncorrupted judgment : that not 
the strong free mind, but the enslaved will, is the 
true original infidel in this instance ? It would not 
be the first time, that a treacherous bosom-sin had 
suborned the understandings of men to bear false 
witness against its avowed enemy, the right though 
unreceived owner of the house, who had long warned 
that sin out, and waited only for its ejection to enter 
and take possession of the same. 

I have elsewhere in the present Work explained 
the difference between the Understanding and the 
Reason, by reason meaning exclusively the speculative 
or scientific power so called, the vovs, or mens of the 
ancients. And wider still is the distinction between 
the understanding and the spiritual mind. But no 
gift of God does or can contradict any other gift, 
except by misuse or misdirection. Most readily 
therefore do I admit, that there can be no contrariety 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 157 

between revelation and the understanding ; unless you 
call the fact, that the skin, though sensible of the 
warmth of the sun, can convey no notion of its figure 
or its joyous light, or of the colours which it impresses 
on the clouds, a contrariety between the skin and the 
eye ; or infer that the cutaneous and the optic nerves 
contradict each other. 

But we have grounds to believe, that there are yet 
other rays or effluences from the sun, which neither 
feeling nor sight can apprehend, but which are to be 
inferred from the effects. And were it even so with 
regard to the spiritual sun, how would this contradict 
the understanding or the reason ? It is a sufficient 
proof of the contrary, that the mysteries in question 
are not in the direction of the understanding or the 
(speculative) reason. They do not move on the same 
line or plane with them, and therefore cannot con 
tradict them. But besides this, in the mystery that 
most immediately concerns the believer, that of the 
birth into a new and spiritual life, the common sense 
and experience of mankind come in aid of their faith. 
The analogous facts, which we know to be true, not 
only facilitate the apprehension of the facts promised 
to us, and expressed by the same words in conjunc- 
tion with a distinctive epithet ; but being confessedly 
not less incomprehensible, the certain knowledge of 
the one disposes us to the belief of the other. It 
removes at least all objections to the truth of the 
doctrine derived from the mysteriousness of its 
subject. The life, we seek after, is a mystery ; but 
so both in itself and in its origin is the life we have. 
In order to meet this question, however, with minds 
duly prepared, there are two preliminary inquiries to 
be decided ; the first respecting the purport, the 
second respecting the language, of the Gospel. 

First then, of the purport, namely, what the Gospel 



153 AIDS TO BEFLECTION. 

does not, and what it does profess to be. The 
Gospel is not a system of theology, nor a syntagma 
of theoretical propositions and conclusions for the 
enlargement of speculative knowledge, ethical or 
metaphysical. But it is a history, a series of facts 
and events related or announced. These do indeed 
involve, or rather I should say they at the same time 
are, most important doctrinal truths ; but still facts 
and declarations of facts. 

Secondly, of the language. This is a wide subject 
But the point, to which I chiefly advert, is the ne- 
cessity of thoroughly understanding the distinction 
between analogous and metaphorical language. Ana- 
logies are used in aid of conviction ; metaphors, as 
means of illustration. The language is analogous, 
wherever a thing, power, or principle in a higher 
dignity is expressed by the same thing, power, or 
principle in a lower but more known form. Such, 
for instance, is the language of John iii. 6. That 
which is bom of the flesh, is flesh ; that which is bom 
of the Spirit, is Spirit. The latter half of the verse 
contains the fact asserted ; the former half the analo- 
gous fact, by which it is rendered intelligible. If 
any man choose to call this metaphorical or figurative, 
I ask him whether with Hobbes and Bolingbroke he 
applies the same rule to the moral attributes of the 
Deity ? Whether he regards the divine justice, for 
instance, as a metaphorical term, a mere figure of 
speech ? If he disclaims this, then I answer, neither 
do I regard the phrase born again, or spiritual life, 
as a figure or metaphor. I have only to add, that 
these analogies are the material, or (to speak chemi- 
cally) the base, of symbols and symbolical expres- 
sions ; the nature of which is always tautegorical, that 
is, expressing the same subject but with a difference, 
in contra-distinction from metaphors and similitudes, 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION 159 

which are always allegorical, that is, expressing a 
different subject but with a resemblance.* 

Of metaphorical language, on the other hand, let 
the following be taken as instance and illustration 
I am speaking, we will suppose, of an act, which in 
its own nature, and as a producing and efficient 
cause, is transcendant ; but which produces sundry 
effects, each of which is the same in kind with an 
effect produced by a cause well known and of ordinary 
occurrence. Now when I characterise or designate 
this transcendant act, in exclusive reference to these 
its effects, by a succession of names borrowed from 
their ordinary causes ; not for the purpose of rendering 
the act itself, or the manner of the agency, conceivable, 
but in order to show the nature and magnitude of the 
benefits received from it, and thus to excite the due 
admiration, gratitude, and love in the receivers ; in 
this case I should be rightly described as speaking 
metaphorically. And in this case to confound the 
similarity, in respect of the effects relatively to the 
recipients, with an identity in respect of the causes 
or modes of causation relatively to the transcendant 
act or the Divine Agent, is a confusion of metaphor 
with analogy, and of figurative with literal ; and has 
been and continues to be a fruitful source of supersti- 
tion or enthusiasm in believers, and of objections and 
prejudices to infidels and sceptics. But each of these 
points is worthy of a separate consideration: and apt 
occasions will be found of reverting to them severally 
in the following Aphorisms, or the comments thereto 
attached. 

* See the " Statesman's Manual/' p. 230, 2nd edit.- -EcL 



160 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM VIII. 

LEIGHTOH". 

Faith elevates the soul not only above sense and 
sensible things, but above reason itself. As reason 
corrects the errors which sense might occasion, so 
supernatural faith corrects the errors of natural reason 
judging accord iug to sense. 



COMMENT. 

My remarks on this Aphorism from Leighton can- 
not be better introduced, or their purport more dis- 
tinctly announced, than by the following sentence 
from Harrington, with no other change than is neces- 
sary to make the words express, without aid of the 
context, what from the context it is evident was the 
writer's meaning. " The definition and proper cha- 
racter of man — that, namely, which should contra- 
distinguish him from other animals — is to be taken 
from his reason rather than from his understanding : 
in regard that in other creatures there may be some- 
thing of understanding, but there is nothing of 
reason." 

Sir Thomas Browne, in his Religio Medici, com- 
plains, that there are not impossibilities enough in 
religion for his active faith ; and adopts by choice 
and in free preference such interpretations of certain 
texts and declarations of Holy Writ, as place them 
in irreconcilable contradiction to the demonstrations 
of science and the experience of mankind, because 
(says he) " I love to lose myself in a mystery, and 
'tis my solitary recreation to pose my apprehension 
with those involved enigmas and riddles of the 
Trinity and Incarnation ; " — and because he delights 
(as thinking it no vulgar part of faith) to believe a 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 161 

thing not only above but contrary to reason, and 
against the evidence of our proper senses. For the 
worthy knight could answer all the objections of the 
Devil and reason " with the old resolution he had 
learnt of Tertullian : Cerium est quia impossibile est. 
It is certainly true because it is quite impossible ! " 
Now this I call Ultra-fidianisin.* 

* There is this advantage in the occasional use of a 
newly minted term or title, expressing the doctrinal schemes 
of particular sects or parties, that i fc avoids the inconvenience 
that presses on either side, whether we adopt the name 
which the party itself has taken up by which to express its 
peculiar tenets, or that by which the same party is desig- 
nated by its opponents. If we take the latter, it most often 
happens that either the persons are invidiously aimed at in 
the designation of the principles, or that the name implies 
some consequence or occasional accompaniment of the prin- 
ciples denied by the parties themselves, as applicable to 
them collectively. On the other hand, convinced as I am, 
that current appellations are never wholly indifferent or 
inert : and that, when employed to express the characteristic 
belief or object of a religious confederacy, they exert on the 
many a great and constant, though insensible, influence ; I 
cannot but fear that in adopting the former I may be sacri- 
ficing the interests of truth beyond what the duties of 
courtesy can demand or justify. I have elsewhere stated 
my objections to the word Unitarians, as a name which in 
its proper sense can belong only to the maintainers of the 
truth impugned by the persons who have chosen it as their 
designation. For unity or unition, and indistinguishable 
unicity or sameness, are incompatible terms. We never speak 
of the unity of attraction, or the unity of repulsion ; but of 
the unity of attraction and repulsion in each corpuscle. 
Indeed, the essential diversity of the conceptions, unity and 
sameness, was among the elementary principles of the old 
logicians ; and Leibnitz, in his critique on Wissowatius, has 
ably exposed the sophisms grounded on the confusion of the 
two terms. But in the exclusive sense, in which the name, 



16$ AIDS TO REFLECTION, 

Again, there is a scheme constructed on the prin 
ciple of retaining the social sympathies, that attend 
on the name of believer, at the least possible expen- 

Unitarian, is appropriated by the Sect, and in which they 
mean it to be understood, it is a presumptuous boast and an 
uncharitable calumny. ISTo one of the Churches to which 
they on this article of the Christian Faith stand opposed, 
Greek or Latin, ever adopted the term, Trini — or Tri-uni- 
tarians as their ordinary and proper name : and had it been 
otherwise, yet unity is assuredly no logical opposite to Tri- 
unity, which expressly includes it. The triple alliance is a 
fortiori an alliance. The true designation of their character- 
istic tenet, and which would simply and inoffensively express 
a fact admitted on all sides, is Psilanthropism, or the asser- 
tion of the mere humanity of Christ.* 

I dare not hesitate to avow my regret that any scheme of 
doctrines or tenets should be the subject of penal law 
ihough I can easily conceive, that any scheme, however 
excellent in itself, may be propagated, and however false or 
injurious, may be assailed, in a manner and by means that 
would make the advocate or assailant justly punishable. But 
then it is the manner, the means, that constitute the crime. 
The merit or demerit of the opinions themselves depends on 
their originating and determining causes, which may differ 
in every different believer, and are certainly known to Him 
alone, who commanded us, Judge not, lest ye he judged. At 
all events, in the present state of the law, I do not see where 
we can begin, or where we can stop, without inconsistency 
and consequent hardship. Judging by all that we can pre- 
tend to know or are entitled to infer, who among us will 
take on himself to deny that the late Dr. Priestley was a 
good and benevolent man, as sincere in his love, as he was 
intrepid and indefatigable in his pursuit, of truth ) Now let 
us construct three parallel tables, the first containing the 
articles of belief, moral and theological, maintained by the 
venerable Hooker, as the representative of the Established 



* See. the second Lay Sermon, p. 367, 2nd edit. — Ed. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. -163 

diture of belief; a scheme of picking and choosing 
Scripture texts for the support of doctrines, that have 
been learned beforehand from the higher oracle of 

Church, each article being distinctly lined and numbered ; 
the second the tenets and persuasions of Lord Herbert, as 
the representative of the Platonizing Deists ; and the third, 
those of Dr. Priestley. Let the points, in which the second 
and third agree with or differ from the first, be considered 
as to the comparative number modified by the comparative 
weight and importance of the several points — and let any 
competent and upright man be appointed the arbiter, to 
decide according to his best judgment, without any reference 
to the truth of the opinions, which of the two differed from 
the first more widely. I say this, well aware that it would 
be abundantly more prudent to leave it unsaid. But I say 
it in the conviction, that the adoption of admitted mis- 
nomers in the naming of doctrinal systems, if only they have 
been negatively legalised, is but an equivocal proof of 
liberality towards the persons who dissent from us. On the 
contrary, I more than suspect that the former liberality 
does in too many men arise from a latent pre-disposition to 
transfer their reprobation and intolerance from the doctrines 
to the doctors, from the belief to the believers. Indecency, 
abuse, scoffing on subjects dear and awful to a multitude 
of our fellow-citizens, appeals to the vanity, appetites, and 
malignant passions of ignorant and incompetent judges — 
these are flagrant overt-acts, condemned by the law written 
in the heart of every honest man, Jew, Turk, and Christian. 
These are points respecting which the humblest honest man 
feels it his duty to hold himself infallible, and dares not 
hesitate in giving utterance to the verdict of his conscience 
in the jury-box as fearlessly as by his fireside. It is far 
otherwise with respect to matters of faith and inward con- 
viction : and with respect to these I say — Tolerate no belief 
that you judge false and of injurious tendency : and arraign 
no believer. The man is more and other than his belief: 
and God only knows, how small or how large a part of him 
the belief in question mav be, for good or for evil. Resist 

u 2 



164 AIDS TO REFLECTION 

common sense ; which, as applied to the truths of 
religion, means the popular part of the philosophy 

every false doctrine: and call no man heretic. The false 
doctrine does not necessarily make the man a heretic ; but 
an evil heart can make any doctrine heretical. 

Actuated by these principles, I have objected to a false 
and deceptive designation in the case of one system. Per- 
suaded that the doctrines, enumerated in pp. 145 — 6, are not 
only essential to the Christian religion, but those which 
contra-distinguish the religion as Christian, I merely repeat 
this persuasion in another form, when I assert, that (in my 
sense of the word, Christian) Unitarianism is not Christian- 
ity. But do I say, that those who call themselves Unitarians 
are not Christians ? God forbid ! I would not think, much 
less promulgate, a judgment at once so presumptuous and so 
uncharitable.* Let a friendly antagonist retort on my scheme 
of faith in the like manner : I shall respect him all the more 
for his consistency as a reasoner, and not confide the less in 
his kindness towards me as his neighbour and fellow- 
Christian. This latter and most endearing name I scarcely 
know how to withhold even from my friend, Hyman 
Hurwitz, as often as I read what every reverer of Holy Writ 
and of the English Bible ought to read, his admirable Ym- 
dicicB HebraiccE. It has trembled on the verge, as it were, of 
my lips, every time I have conversed with that pious, learned, 
strong-minded, and single-hearted Jew, an Israelite indeed, 
and without guile — 

Citjiis cur a sequi naturam, legibus uti, 

Et mentem vitiis, or a negare dolis: 
Virtutes opibus, verum pr&ponere falso, 

Nil vacuum sensu dicer e, nil facer e. 
Post obitum vivam secum,f secum requiescam, 

Nee fiat melior sors mea sorte sua/f 

From a poem of Hildcbert on his Master, 
the persecuted Berengarius. 



"See Table Talk," p. 15b*, 2nd edit.— JEtf.. 
I do not answer for the corrupt Latin. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION 165 

in fashion. Of course, the scheme differs at different 
times and in different individuals in the number of 

Under the same feelings I conclude this aid to reflection 
by applying the principle to another misnomer not less 
inappropriate and far more influential. Of those, whom I 
have found most reason to respect and value, many have 
been members of the Church of Rome ; and certainly I did 
not honour those the least, who scrupled even in common 
p?rlance to call our Church a reformed Church. A similar 
scruple would nob, methinks, disgrace a Protestant as to the 
use of the words, Catholic or Roman Catholic ; and if (tacitly 
at least, and in thought) he remembered that the Romish 
anti-Catholic Church would more truly express the fact. 
Romish, to mark that the corruptions in discipline, doctrine, 
and practice do. for the larger part, owe both their origin and 
perpetuation to the Romish Court, and the local tribunals 
of the City of Rome ; and neither are or ever have been 
Catholic, that is, universal, throughout the Roman Empire, 
or even in the whole Latin or Western Church — and anti- 
Catholic, because no other Church acts on so narrow and 
excommunicative a principle, or is characterised by such a 
jealous spirit of monopoly. Instead of a Catholic (universal) 
spirit, it may be truly described as a spirit of particularism 
counterfeiting Catholicity by a negative totality, and heretical 
self-circumscription — in the first instances cutting off, and 
since then cutting herself off from, all the other members of 
Christ's body. For the rest, I think as that man of true 
catholic spirit and apostolic zeal, Richard Baxter, thought ; 
and my readers will thank me for conveying my reflections in 
his own words, in the following golden passage from his Life, 
" faithfully published from his own original MSS. by Matthew 
Silvester, 1696." 

" My censures of the Papists do much differ from what 
they were at first. I then thought that their errors in the 
doctrines of faith were their most dangerous mistakes. But 
now I am assured that their misexpressions and misunder- 
standing of us, with our mistakings of them, and inconvenient 
expressing of our own opinions, have made the difference in 



166 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

articles excluded ; but, it may always be recognised 
by this permanent character, that its object is to draw 
religion down to the believer's intellect, instead of 
raising his intellect up to religion. And this extreme 
I call Minimi-fidianism. 

Now if there be one preventive of both these ex- 
tremes more efficacious than another, and preliminary 
to all the rest, it is the being made fully aware of 
the diversity of Reason and the Understanding. And 
this is the more expedient, because though there is no 
want of authorities ancient and modern for the distinc- 
tion of the faculties, and the distinct appropriation 
of the terms, yet our best writers too often confound 
the one with the other. Even Lord Bacon himself, 

most points appear much greater than it is ; and that in some 
it is next to none at all. But the great and unreconcileable 
differences lie in their Church tyranny ; in the usurpations of 
their hierarchy, and priesthood, under the name of spiritual 
authority exercising a temporal lordship ; in their corrup- 
tions and abasement of God's worship; but above all in their 
systematic befriending of ignorance and vice. 

"At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved that a 
Papist cannot go beyond a reprobate ; but now I doubt not 
that God hath many sanctified ones among them, who have 
received the true doctrine of Christianity so practically, that 
their contradictory errors prevail not against them, to hinder 
their love of God and their salvation : but that their errors 
are like a conquerable dose of poison, which a healthful 
nature doth overcome. And I can never believe that a man 
may not be saved by that religion, which doth but bring him to 
the true love of God and to a heavenly mind and life: nor that 
God will ever cast a soul into hell that truly loveth him. Also at 
first it would disgrace any doctrine with me, if I did but hear 
it called Popery and anti-Christian ; but I have long learned 
to be more impartial, and to know that Satan can use even 
the names of Popery and Antichrist, to bring a truth into 
suspicion and discredit." — Baxter's Life, Part I. p. 131. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 167 

who in his Novum Organum has so incomparably set 
forth the nature of the difference, and the unfitness 
of the latter faculty for the objects of the former, 
does nevertheless in sundry places use the term 
reason where he means the understanding, and 
sometimes, though less frequently, understanding for 
reason.* In consequence of thus confounding the 
two terms, or rather of wasting both words for trie 
expression of one and the same faculty, he left 
himself no appropriate term for the other and higher 
gift of reason, and was thus under the necessity of 
adopting fantastical and mystical phrases, for example, 
the dry light (lumen siccum), the lucific vision, and 
the like, meaning thereby nothing more than reason 
in contradistinction from the understanding. Thus too 
in the preceding Aphorism, by reason Leighton means 
the human understanding, the explanation annexed 
to it being (by a noticeable coincidence) word for 
word, the very definition which the founder of the 
Critical Philosophy gives of the understanding — 
namely, "the faculty judging according to sense." 



ON THE DIFFERENCE IN KIND OF REASON 
AND THE UNDERSTANDING. 

SCHEME OF THE ARGUMENT. 

On the contrary, Reason is the power of universal 
and necessary convictions, the source and substance 
of truths above sense, and having their evidence in 
themselves. Its presence is always marked by the 
necessity of the position affirmed : this necessity 
being conditional, when a truth of reason is applied 

* See the Friend, I. pp. 20G—217 ; III. Essays VIII. and 
[X. 3rd edit.— Ed. 



16*8 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

to facts of experience, or to the rules and maxims of 
the understanding; but absolute, when the subject 
matter is itself the growth or offspring of reason. 
Hence arises a distinction in reason itself, derived 
from the different mode of applying it, and from the 
objects to which it is directed : accordingly as we 
consider one and the same gift, now as the ground 
of formal principles, and now as the origin of ideas. 
Contemplated distinctively in reference to formal (or 
abstract) truth, it is the Speculative Reason ; but in 
reference to actual (or moral) truth, as the fountain 
of ideas and the light of the conscience, we name it 
the Practical Reason. Whenever by self-subjection 
to this universal light, the will of the individual, the 
particular will, has become a will of reason, the man 
is regenerate : and reason is then the spirit of the 
regenerated man, whereby the person is capable of a 
quickening intercommunion with the Divine Spirit. 
And herein consists the mystery of Redemption, that 
this has been rendered possible for us. And so it is 
written ; the first man Adam was made a living soul, 
the last Adam a quickening Spirit. (1 Cor. xv. 45.) 
We need only compare the passages in the writings 
of the Apostles Paul and John, concerning the Spirit 
and spiritual gifts, with those in the Proverbs and in 
the Wisdom of Solomon respecting Reason, to be 
convinced that the terms are synonymous.' 1 " In this 
at once most comprehensive and most appropriate 
acceptation of the word, Reason is pre-eminently 
spiritual, and a spirit, even our spirit, through an. 
effluence of the same grace by which we are privileged 
to say, Our Father ! 

On the other hand, the judgments of the Under- 
standing are binding only in relation to the objects 

* See Wisd. of Sol. c. vii. 22, 23, 27.- j5& 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 109 

of our senses, which we reflect under the forms of 
the understanding. It is, asLeighton rightly defines 
it, " the faculty judging according to sense." Hence 
we add the epithet human without tautology : and 
speak of the human understanding in disjunction 
from that of beings higher or lower than man. But 
there is, in this sense, no human reason. There 
neither is nor can be but one reason, one and the 
same ; even the light that lighteth every man's in- 
dividual understanding (discursus), and thus maketh 
xt a reasonable understanding, discourse of reason — 
one only, yet manifold : it goeth through all under- 
standing, and remaining in itself regenerateth all 
other powers. The same writer calls it likewise 
an influence from the Glory of the Almighty, this 
being one of the names of the Messiah, as the Logos, 
or co-eternal Filial Word. And most noticeable for 
its coincidence is a fragment of Heraclitus, as I have 
indeed already noticed elsewhere ; — " To discourse 
rationally it behoves us to derive strength from 
that which is common to all men : for all human 
understandings are nourished by the one Divine 
Word." 

Beasts, I have said, partake of understanding. If 
any man deny this, there is a ready way of settling 
the question. Let him give a careful perusal to 
Hiiber's two small volumes on bees and ants (espe- 
cially the latter), and to Eirby and Spence's Intro- 
duction to Entomology : and one or other of two 
things must follow. He will either change his 
opinion as irreconcileable with the facts ; or he must 
deny the facts ; which yet I cannot suppose, inasmuch 
as the denial would be tantamount to the no less 
extravagant than uncharitable assertion, that Hiiber, 
and the several eminent naturalists, French and 
English, Swiss, German, and Italian, by whom 



170 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Hiiber's observations and experiments have been 
repeated and confirmed, have all conspired to impose 
a series of falsehoods and fairy-tales on the world. I 
see no way, at least, by which he can get out of this 
dilemma, but by over-leaping the admitted rules and 
fences of all legitimate discussion, and either trans- 
ferring to the word, Understanding, the definition 
already appropriated to Keason, or defining under- 
standing in genere by the specific and accessional 
perfections which the human understanding derives 
from its co-existence with reason and free-will in the 
same individual person ; in plainer words, from its 
being exercised by a self-conscious and responsible 
feature. And, after all, the supporter of Harringtons 
position would have a right to ask him, by what 
other name he would designate the faculty in the 
instances referred to ? If it be not understanding, 
what is it ? 

In no former part of this Volume have I felt the 
same anxiety to obtain a patient attention. For I 
do not hesitate to avow, that on my success in 
establishing the validity and importance of the dis- 
tinction between Reason and the Understanding, rest 
my hopes of carrying the Reader along with me 
through all that is to follow. Let the student but 
clearly see and comprehend the diversity in the 
things themselves, and the expediency of a correspon- 
dent distinction and appropriation of the words will 
follow of itself. Turn back for a moment to the 
Aphorism, and having re-perused the first paragraph 
of this Comment thereon, regard the two following 
narratives as the illustration. I do not say proof: 
for I take these from a multitude of facts equally 
striking for the one only purpose of placing my 
meaning out of all doubt. 

I. Huber put a dozen humble-bees under a bell- 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION 171 

glass aloDg with a comb of about ten silken cocoons 
so unequal in height as not to be capable of stand- 
ing steadily. To remedy this, two or three of the 
humble-bees got upon the comb, stretched themselves 
over its edge, and with their heads downwards fixed 
their forefeet on the table on which the comb stood, 
and so with their hind feet kept the comb from 
falling. When these were weary others took their 
places. In this constrained and painful posture, 
fresh bees relieving their comrades at intervals, and 
each working in its turn, did these affectionate little 
insects support the comb for nearly three days : at 
the end of which they had prepared sufficient wax to 
build pillars with. But these pillars having acciden- 
tally got displaced, the bees had recourse again to 
the same manoeuvre, till Hiiber, pitying their hard 
case, &c. 

II. "I shall at present describe the operations of 
a single ant that I observed sufficiently long to satisfy 
my curiosity. 

" One rainy day I observed a laborer digging the 
ground near the aperture which gave entrance to the 
ant-hill. It placed in a heap the several fragments 
it had scraped up, and formed them into small pellets, 
which it deposited here and there upon the nest. 
It returned constantly to the same place, and ap- 
peared to have a marked design, for it labored with 
ardor and perseverance. I remarked a slight furrow, 
excavated in the ground in a straight line, represent- 
ing the plan of a path or gallery. The laborer, the 
whole of whose movements fell under my immediate 
observation, gave it greater depth and breadth, and 
cleared out its borders : and I saw at length, in 
which I could not be deceived, that it had the inten- 
tion of establishing an avenue which was to lead 
from one of the stories to the underground chambers. 



172 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

This path, which was about two or three inches in 
length, and formed by a single ant, was opened above 
and bordered on each side by a buttress of earth 
its concavity en forme de gouttiere was of the most 
perfect regularity, for the architect had not left an 
atom too much. The work of this ant was so well 
followed and understood, that I could almost to a 
certainty guess its next proceeding, and the very 
fragment it was about to remove. At the side of the 
opening w T here this path terminated, was a second 
opening to which it was necessary to arrive by some 
road. The same ant engaged in and executed alone 
this undertaking. It furrowed out and opened another 
path, parallel to the first, leaving between each a 
little wall of three or four lines in height. Those 
ants who lay the foundation of a wall, chamber, or 
gallery, from working separately occasion, now and 
then, a want of coincidence in the parts of the same 
or different objects. Such examples are of no unfre- 
quent occurrence, but they by no means embarrass 
them. What follows proves that the workman, on 
discovering his error, knew how to rectify it. A 
wall had been erected with the view of sustaining a 
vaulted ceiling, still incomplete, that had been pro- 
jected from the wall of the opposite chamber. The 
workman who began constructing it, had given it too 
little elevation to meet the opposite partition upon 
which it was to rest. Had it been continued on the 
original plan, it must infallibly have met the wall at 
about one-half of its height, and this it was necessary 
to avoid. This state of things very forcibly claimed 
my attention, when one of the ants arriving at the 
place, and visiting the works, appeared to be struck by 
the difficulty which presented itself; but this it as soon 
obviated, by taking down the ceiling and raising the 
wall upon which it reposed. It then, in my presence, 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 173 

constructed a new ceiling with the fragments of the 
former one." — Hiiber's Natural History of Ants, pp 
38—41. 

Now I assert, that the faculty manifested in the 
acts here narrated does not differ in kind from un- 
derstanding, and that it does so differ from reason. 
What I conceive the former to he, physiologically 
considered, will he shown hereafter. In this place 
I take the understanding as it exists in men, and in 
exclusive reference to its intelligential functions ; 
and it is in this sense of the word that I am to 
prove the necessity of contra-distinguishing it from 
reason. 

Premising then, that two or more subjects having 
the same essential characters are said to fall under 
the same general definition, I lay it down, as a self- 
evident truth — fit is, in fact, an identical proposition) 
— that whatever subjects fall under one and the same 
general definition are of one and the same kind : 
consequently, that which does not fall under this 
definition, must differ in kind from each and all of 
those that do. Difference in degree does indeed 
suppose sameness in kind ; and difference in kind 
precludes distinction from difference of degree. 
Heterogenea non comparari, ergo nee distingui, pos- 
sutit. The inattention to this rule gives rise to the 
numerous sophisms comprised by Aristotle under the 
head of ixtrafiaais els a\Xo yivos, that is, transition 
into a new kind, or the falsely applying to X what had 
been truly asserted of A, and might have been true of 
X, bad it differed from A in its degree only. The 
sophistry consists in the omission to notice what not 
being noticed will be supposed not to exist ; and 
where the silence respecting the difference in kind is 
tantamount to an assertion that the difference is 
merely in degree. But the fraud is especially gross. 



174 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



where the heterogeneous subject, thus clandestinely 
slipt in, is in its own nature insusceptible of degree : 
such as, for instance, certainty or circularity, con. 
trasted with strength, or magnitude. 

To apply these remarks for our present purpose, 
we have only to describe Understanding and Reason, 
each by its characteristic qualities. The comparison 
will show the difference. 



UNDERSTANDING. 

1. Understanding is 
discursive. 

2. The Understanding 
in all its*judgments refers 
to some other faculty as 
its ultimate authority. 

3. Understanding is 
the faculty of reflection. 



REASON. 

1. Reason is fixed. 

2. The Reason in all 
its decisions appeals to 
itself as the ground and 
substance of their truth. 
(Heb. vi. 13.) 

3. Reason of contem 
plation. Reason indeed 
is much nearer to Sense 
than to Understanding : 
for Reason (says our great 
Hooker) is a direct aspect 
of truth, an inward be- 
holding, having a similar 
relation to the intelligible 
or spiritual, as Sense has 
to the material or pheno- 
menal. 



The result is, that neither falls under the defini- 
tion of the other. They differ in kind : and had my 
object been confined to the establishment of this 
fact, the preceding columns would have superseded 
all further disquisition. But I have ever in view 
the especial interest of my youthful readers, whose 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 175 

reflective power is to be cultivated, as well as 
their particular reflections to be called forth and 
guided. Now the main chance of their reflecting on 
religious subjects aright, and of their attaining to the 
contemplation of spiritual truths at all rests on their 
insight into the nature of this disparity still more 
than on their conviction of its existence. I now, 
therefore, proceed to a brief analysis of the Under- 
standing, in elucidation of the definitions already 
given. 

The Understanding, then, considered exclusively 
as an organ of human intelligence, is the faculty by 
which we reflect and generalise. Take, for instance, 
any object consisting of many parts, a house, or a 
group of houses : and if it be contemplated, as a 
whole, that is, as many constituting a one, it forms 
what, in the technical language of psychology, is 
called a total impression. Among the various com- 
ponent parts of this, we direct our attention especially 
to such as we recollect to have noticed in other total 
impressions. Then, by a voluntary act, we withhold 
our attention from all the rest to reflect exclusively 
on these ; and these we henceforward use as common 
characters, by virtue of which the several objects are 
referred to one and the same sort." Thus, the 
whole process may be reduced to three acts, all de- 
pending on and supposing a previous impression on 
the senses : first, the appropriation of our attention ; 

* Accordingly as we attend more or less to the differences, 
the sort becomes, of course, more or less comprehensive. 
Hence there arises for the systematic naturalist the necessity 
of subdividing the sorts into orders, classes, families, &e. : 
all which, however, resolve themselves for the mere logician 
into the conception of genus and species, that is, the compre- 
hending and the comprehended, 



170 ATDS TO REFLECTION. 

second, (and in order to the continuance of the first 
abstraction, or the voluntary withholding of the atten 
tion ; and, third, generalisation. And these are the 
proper functions of the Understanding : and the power 
of so doing, is what we mean, when we say we possess 
understanding, or are created with the faculty of 
understanding/" 

* It is obvious, that the third function includes the act of 
comparing one object with another. The act of compariug 
supposes in the compariDg faculty certain inherent forms, 
that is, modes of reflecting not referable to the objects 
reflected on, but pre-determined by the constitution and 
mechanism of the understanding itself. And under some 
one or other of these forms, the resemblances and differ- 
ences must be subsumed in order to be conceivable and a 
fortiori therefore in order to be comparable. The senses 
do not compare, but merely furnish the materials for 
comparison. 

Were it not so, how could the first comparison have been 
possible? It would involve the absurdity of measuring a 
thing by itself. But if we think on some one thing, the 
length of our own foot, or of our hand and arm from the 
elbow joint, it is evident that in order to do this, we must 
have the conception of measure. Now these antecedent and 
most general conceptions are what is meant by the consti- 
tuent forms of the understanding : w r e call them constituent 
because they are not acquired by the understanding, but are 
implied in its constitution. As rationally might a circle be 
said to acquire a centre and circumference, as the under- 
standing to acquire these its inherent forms or ways of 
conceiving. This is what Leibnitz meant, when to the old 
adage of the Peripatetics, Nihil in intellectu quod non prius 
in sensu — there is nothing in the understanding not derived 
from the senses, or — there is nothing conceived that was not 
previously perceived, — he replied — prceter intellectum ipsum, 
except the understanding itself. 

And here let me remark for once and all : whoever would 
reflect to any purpose — whoever is in earnest in his pursuit 



ON SIM RITUAL RELIGION 177 

Now when a person speaking to us of any parti- 
cular object or appearance refers it by means of 

of self-knowledge, and of one of the principal means to this, 
an insight into the meaning of the words he uses, and the 
different meanings properly or improperly conveyed by one 
and the same word, accordingly as it is used in the schools 
or the market, — accordingly as the kind or a high degree is 
intended (for example, heat, weight, and the like, as employed 
scientifically, compared with the same word used popularly) 
— whoever, I say, seriously, proposes this as his object, must 
so far overcome his dislike of pedantry, and his dread of 
being sneered at as a pedant, as not to quarrel with an 
uncouth word or phrase, till he is quite sure that some other 
and more familiar one would not only have expressed the 
precise meaning with equal clearness, but have been as likely 
to draw attention to this meaning exclusively. The ordinary 
language of a philosopher in conversation or popular writings, 
compared with the language he uses in strict reasoning, is as 
his watch compared with the chronometer in his observa- 
tory. He sets the former by the town clock, or even, 
perhaps by the Dutch clock in his kitchen, not because he 
believes it right, but because his neighbours and his cook go 
by it. To afford the reader an opportunity for exercising the 
forbearance here recommended, I turn back to the phrase, 
"most general conceptions," and observe, that in strict and 
severe propriety of language I should have said generalific 
or generific rather than general, and concipiences or concep- 
tive acts rather than conceptions. 

It is an old complaint, that a man of genius no sooner 
appears, but the host of dunces are up in arms to repel the 
invading alien. This observation would have made more 
converts to its truth, I suspect, had it been worded more 
dispassionately and with a less contemptuous antithesis. For 
"dunces," let us substitute "the many," or the " ovros 
Kn(r/j.os " (this world) of the Apostle, and we shall perhaps find 
no great difficulty in accounting for the fact. To arrive at 
the root, indeed, and last ground of the problem, it would 
be necessary to investigate the nature and effects of t-he sens© 



178 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

some common character to a known class (which he 
does in giving it a name), we say, that we understand 

of difference on the human mind where it is not holden in 
check by reason and reflection. We need not go to the 
savage tribes of iSTorth America, or the yet ruder natives of 
the Indian Isles, to learn how slight a degree of difference 
will, in uncultivated minds, call up a sense of diversity, and 
inward perplexity and contradiction, as if the strangers were, 
and yet were not, of the same kind with themselves. Who 
has not had occasion to observe the effect which the gesticu- 
lations and nasal tones of a Frenchman produce on our own 
vulgar ] Here we may see the origin and primary import of 
our unhindncss. It is a sense of unkind, and not the mere 
negation but the positive opposite of the sense of kind. Aliena- 
tion, aggravated now by fear, now by contempt, and not seldom 
by a mixture of both, aversion, hatred, enmity, are so many 
successive shapes of its growth and metamorphosis. In applica- 
tion to the present case, it is sufficient to say, that Pindar's 
remark on sweet music holds equally true of genius : as many 
as are not delighted by it are disturbed, perplexed, irritated. 
The beholder either recognises it as a projected form of his 
own being, that moves before him with a glory round its head, 
or recoils from it as from a spectre. But this speculation would 
lead me too far ; I must be content with haviug referred to 
it as the ultimate ground of the fact, and pass to the more 
obvious and proximate causes. And as the first, I would 
rank the person's not understanding what yet he expects to 
understand, and as if he had a right to do so. An original 
mathematical work, or any other that requires peculiar and 
technical remarks and symbols, will excite no uneasy feelings 
— not in the mind of a competent reader, for he understands 
it; and not with others, because they neither expect nor are 
expected to understand it. The second place we may assign 
to the misunderstanding, which is almost sure to follow in 
cases where the incompetent person, finding no outward 
marks (diagrams, arbitrary signs, and the like) to inform him 
at first sight, that the subject is one which he does not pre- 
tend to understand, and to be ignorant of which does not 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 179 

him; that is, we understand his words. The name 
of a thing, in the original sense of the word name, 

detract from his estimation as a man of abilities generally, 
will attach some meaning to what he hears or reads ; and as 
he is out of humour with the author, it will most often be 
such a meaning as he can quarrel with and exhibit in a 
ridiculous or offensive point of view. 

But above all, the whole world almost of minds, as far 
as we regard intellectual efforts, may be divided into two 
classes of the busy-indolent and lazy-indolent. To both 
alike all thinking is painful, and all attempts to rouse them 
to think, whether in the re- examination of their existing 
convictions, or for the reception of new light, are irritating. 
u It may all be very deep and clever ; but really one ought 
to be quite sure of it before one wrenches one's brain to find 
out what it is. I take up a book as a companion, with whom 
I can have an easy cheerful chit-chat on what we both know 
beforehand, or else matters of fact. In our leisure hours we 
have a right to relaxation and amusement." 

Well ! but in their studious hours, when their bow is to be 
bent, when they are apud Musas, or amidst the Muses? 
Alas ! it is just the same. The same craving for amusement, 
that is, to be away from the Muses ; for relaxation, that is, 
the unbending of a bow which in fact had never been strung ! 
There are two ways of obtaining their applause. The first 
is : enable them to reconcile in one and the same occupation 
the love of sloth and the hatred of vacancy. Gratify indo- 
lence, and yet save them from ennui — in plain English, from 
themselves. For, spite of their antipathy to dry reading, 
the keeping company with themselves is, after all, the in- 
sufferable annoyance : and the true secret of their dislike to 
a work of thought and inquiry lies in its tendency to make 
them acquainted with their own permanent being. The 
other road to their favor is, to introduce to them their owe 
thoughts and predilections, tricked out in the fine language, 
in which it would gratify their vanity to express them ii? 
their own conversation, and with which they can imagine 
themselves showing off: and this (as has been elsewhere 

n 2 



180 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

(nomen, vovfievov, to intelligibile, id quod intelllgiturj 
expresses that which is understood in an appearance, 
that which we place (or make to stand) under it, 
as the condition of its real existence, and in proof 
that it is not an accident of the senses, or affection 
of the individual, not a phantom or apparition, that 
is, an appearance which is only an appearance. (See 
Gen. ii. 19, 20, and in Psalm xx. 1, and in many other 
places of the Bible, the identity of nomen with numen, 

remarked) is the characteristic difference between the second- 
rate writers of the last two or three generations, and the 
same class under Elizabeth and the Stuarts. In the latter 
we find the most far-fetched and singular thoughts in the 
simplest and most native language ; in the former, the most 
obvious and commonplace thoughts in the most far-fetched 
and motley language. But lastly, and as the she qua non of 
their patronage, a sufficient arc must be left for the reader's 
mind to oscillate in — freedom of choice, 

To make the shifting cloud be what you please, 

save only where the attraction of curiosity determines the 
line of motion. The attention must not be fastened down : 
and this every work of genius, not simply narrative, must do 
before it can be justly appreciated. 

In former times a popular work meant one that adapted 
the results of studious meditation or scientific research to 
the capacity of the people, presenting in the concrete, by 
instances and examples, what had been ascertained in the 
abstract and by discovery of the law. Now, on the other 
hand, that is a popular w r ork which gives back to the people 
their own errors and prejudices, and flatters the many by 
creating them, under the title of the public, into a supreme 
and inappellable tribunal of intellectual excellence. 

P.S. In a continuous w r ork, the frequent insertion and 
length of notes would need an apology : in a book like this, 
of aphorisms and detached comments none is necessary, it 
being understood beforehand that the sauce and the garnish 
are to occupy the greater part of the dish. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 181 

that is, invisible power and presence, the nomen sub- 
stantivum of all real objects, and the ground of their 
reality, independently of the affections of sense in 
the percipient). In like manner, in a connected 
succession of names, as the speaker passes from one 
to the other, we say that we understand his discourse, 
discursio intdlectus, discursus, his passing from one 
thing to another. Thus, in all instances, it is words, 
names, or, if images, yet images used as words or 
names, that are the only and exclusive subjects of 
understanding. In no instance do we understand a 
thing in itself; but only the name to which it is re- 
ferred. Sometimes indeed, when several classes are 
recalled conjointly, we identify the words with the 
object — though by courtesy of idiom rather than in 
strict propriety of language. Thus we may say that 
we understand sl rainbow, when recalling successively 
the several names for the several sorts of colours, 
we know that they are to be applied to one and the 
same phcenomenon, at once distinctly and simulta- 
neously ; but even in common speech we should not 
say this of a single colour. No one would say he 
understands red or blue. He sees the colour, and had 
seen it before in a vast number and variety of objects ; 
and he understands the word red, as referring his 
fancy or memory to this his collective experience. 

If this be so, and so it most assuredly is — if the 
proper functions of the understanding be that of ge- 
neralising the notices received from the senses in order 
to the construction of names : of referring particular 
notices, that is, impressions or sensations, to their 
proper names; and, vice versa, names to their cor- 
respondent class or kind of notices — then it follows 
of necessity, that the Understanding is truly and ac- 
curately defined in the words of Leighton and Kant, a 
facultv iudsfincr according to sense 



182 AIDS TO INFLECTION. 

Now whether in defining the speculative Reason, — 
that is, the reason considered abstractedly as an in- 
tellective power) — we call it " the source of necessary 
and universal principles, according to which the no* 
tices of the senses are either affirmed or denied ; " or 
describe it as " the power by which we are enabled 
to draw from particular and contingent appearances 
universal and necessary conclusions :"* it is equally 

* Take a familiar illustration. My sight and touch convey 
to me a certain impression, to which my understanding 
applies its preconceptions (conceptus antecedentes et generalis- 
sv/ui) of quantity and relation, and thus refers it to the class 
and name of three-cornered bodies — we will suppose it the 
iron of a turf-spade. It compares the sides, and finds that 
any two measured as one are greater than the third ; and 
according to a law of the imagination, there arises a pre- 
sumption that in all other bodies of the same figure (that is, 
three-cornered and equilateral) the same proportion exists. 
After this, the senses have been directed successively to a 
number of three-cornered bodies of unequal sides — and in 
these too the same proportion has been found without ex- 
ception, till at length it becomes a fact of experience, that 
in all triangles hitherto seen, the two sides together are 
greater than 'the third: and there will exist no ground 
or analogy for anticipating an exception to a rule, gene- 
ralised from so vast a number of particular instances. So 
far and no farther could the understanding carry us : and 
as far as this "the faculty, judging according to sense," 
conducts many of the inferior animals, if not in the same, 
yet in instances analogous and fully equivalent. 

The reason supersedes the whole process, and on the first 
conception presented by the understanding in consequence 
of the first sight of a triangular figure, of whatever sort 
it might chance to be, it affirms with an assurance incapable 
of future increase, with a perfect certainty, that in all pos- 
sible triangles any two of the inclosing lines will and must 
be greater than the third. In short, understanding in its 
highest form of experience remains commensurate with the 



ON SPIKITUAL RELIGION. 183 

evident that the two definitions differ in their essential 
characters, and consequently the subjects differ in 
hind. 

experimental notices of the senses from which it is gene- 
ralised. Keason, on the other hand, cither predetermines 
experience, or avails itself of a past experience to supersede 
its necessity in all future time ; and affirms truths which no 
sense could perceive, nor experiment verify, nor experience 
confirm. 

Yea, this is the test and character of a truth so affirmed, 
that in its own proper form it is inconceivable. For to 
conceive is a function of the understanding, which can be 
exercised only on subjects subordinate thereto. And yet to 
the forms of the understanding, all truth must be reduced, 
that is to be fixed as an object of reflection, and to be 
rendered expressible. And here we have a second test and 
sign of a truth so affirmed, that it can come forth out of the 
moulds of the understanding only in the disguise of two 
contradictory conceptions, each of which is partially true, 
and the conjunction of both conceptions becomes the repre- 
sentative or expression (the exponent) of a truth beyond 
conception and inexpressible. Examples : Before Abraham 
was, I am. — God is a circle, the centre of which is every- 
where, and circumference nowhere. — The soul is all in 
every part. 

If this appear extravagant, it is an extravagance which no 
man can indeed learn from another, but which (were this 
possible), I might have learnt from Plato, Kepler, and 
Bacon ; from Luther, Hooker, Pascal, Leibnitz, and Fenelon. 
But in this last paragraph I have, I see, unwittingly over- 
stepped my purpose, according to which we were to take 
reason as a simply intellectual power. Yet even as such, 
and with all the disadvantage of a technical and arbitrary 
abstraction, it has been made evident : — 1. That there is an 
intuition or immediate beholding, accompanied by a con- 
viction of the necessity and universality of the truth so 
beholden not derived from the senses, which intuition, when 
it is construed by pure sense, gives birth to the science of 



18 i AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

The dependence of the Understanding on the re- 
presentations of the seuses, and its consequent pos- 

mathematics, and when applied to objects supersensnous or 
spiritual is the organ of theology and philosophy : — and 
2. That there is likewise a reflective and discursive faculty, 
or mediate apprehension which, taken by itself and unin- 
fluenced by the former, depends on the senses for the 
materials on which it is exercised, and is contained within 
the sphere of the senses. And this faculty it is, which in 
generalising the notices of the senses constitutes sensible 
experience, aud gives rise to maxims or rules which may 
become more and more general, but can never be raised into 
universal verities, or beget a consciousness of absolute 
certainty ; though they may be sufficient to extinguish all 
doubt. (Putting revelation out of view, take our first pro- 
genitor in the 50th or 100th year of his existence. His 
experience would probably have freed him from all doubt, 
as the sun sank in the horizon, that it would re-appear the 
next morning. But compare this state of assurance with 
that which the same man would have had of the 47th pro- 
position of Euclid, supposing him like Pythagoras to have 
discovered the demonstration.) jSTow is it expedient, I ask, 
or conformable to the laws and purposes of language, to 
call two so altogether disparate subjects by one and the 
same name ? Or, having two names in our language, should 
we call each of the two diverse subjects by both — that is, by 
either name, as caprice might dictate ? If not, then as we 
have the two words, reason and understanding (as indeed 
what language of cultivated man has not ]), — what should 
prevent us from appropriating the former to the power dis- 
tinctive of humanity ? We need only place the derivatives 
from the two terms in opposition (for example, " A and B 
are both rational beings; but there is no comparison 
between them in point of intelligence," or " She always 
concludes rationally, though not a woman of much under- 
standing ") to see that we cannot; reverse the order — that is, 
call the higher gift understanding, and the lower reason. 
YV licit should prevent us? I asked. Alas! that which has 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 183 

teriority thereto, as contrasted with the independence 
and antecedency of Reason, are strikingly exemplified 
in the Ptolemaic System — that truly wonderful product 
and highest hoast of the faculty, judging according 
to the senses — compared with the Newtonian, as the 
offspring of a yet higher power, arranging, correcting, 
and annulling the representations of the senses ac- 
cording to its own inherent laws and constitutive 
ideas. 

APHORISM IX. 

In wonder all philosophy hegan ; in wonder it 
ends : and admiration fills up the interspace. But 
the first wonder is the offspring of ignorance : the 
last is the parent of adoration. The first is the birth- 
throe of our knowledge : the last is its euthanasy and 
apotheosis. 

prevented us — the cause of this confusion in the terms — is 
only too obvious ; namely, inattention to the momentous 
distinction in the things, and generally, to the duty and 
habit recommended in the fifth introductory Aphorism of 
this volume. But the cause of this, and of all its lamentable 
effects and subcauses, false doctrine, blindness of heart, and 
contempt of the word, is best declared by the philosophic 
Apostle : they did not UJ:e to retain God in their knowledge, 
(Rom. i. 23,) and though they could not extinguish the light 
that lighteth every man, and which shone in the darkness ; yet 
because the darkness could not comprehend the light, they 
refused to bear witness of it and worshipped, instead, the 
shaping mist, which the light had drawn upward from the 
ground (that is, from the mere animal nature and instinct), 
and which that light alone had made visible, that is, by 
superinducing on the animal instinct the principle of self- 
consciousness. 



186 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



SEQUELS : OR THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY THE PREOEDESQ 
APHORISM. 

As in respect of the first wonder we are all on the 
same level, how comes it that the philosophic mind 
should, in all ages, he the privilege of a few ? The 
most obvious reason is this. The wonder takes place 
before the period of reflection, and (with the great 
mass of mankind) long before the individual is ca- 
pable of directing his attention freely and consciously 
to the feeling, or even to its exciting causes. Sur- 
prise (the form and dress which the wonder of igno- 
rance usually puts on) is worn away, if not precluded, 
by custom and familiarity. So is it with the objects 
of the senses, and the ways and fashions of the world 
around us ; even as with the beat of our own hearts, 
which we notice only in moments of fear and pertur- 
bation. But with regard to the concerns of our inward 
being, there is yet another cause that acts in concert 
with the power in custom to prevent a fair and equal 
exertion of reflective thought. The great funda- 
mental truths and doctrines of religion, the existence 
and attributes of God and the life after death, are in 
Christian countries taught so early, under such cir- 
cumstances, and in such close and vital association 
with whatever makes or marks reality for our infant 
minds, that the words ever after represent sensations, 
feeliDgs, vital assurances, sense of reality — rather 
than thoughts, or any distinct conception. Associated, 
I had almost said identified, with the parental voice, 
look, touch, with the living warmth and pressure of 
the mother, on whose lap the child is first made to 
kneel, within whose palms its little hands are folded, 
and the motion of whose eyes its eyes follow and 
imitate — (yea, what the blue sky is to the mother, 
the mother's upraised eyes and brow are to the child, 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 187 

the type and symbol of an invisible heaven ! ) — from 
within and without these great first truths, these good 
and gracious tidings, these holy and humanising 
spells, in the preconformity to which our very huma- 
nity may be said to consist, are so infused that it 
were but a tame and inadequate expression to say, we 
all take them for granted. At a later period, in 
youth or early manhood, most of us, indeed, (in the 
higher and middle classes at least) read or hear certain 
proofs of these truths — which we commonly listen to, 
when we listen at all, with much the same feelings as 
a popular prince on his coronation day, in the centre 
of a fond and rejoicing nation, may be supposed tc 
hear the champion's challenge to all the non-existents, 
that deny or dispute his rights and royalty. In 
fact, the order of proof is most often reversed or trans- 
posed. As far at least as I dare judge from the goings 
on in my own mind, when with keen delight I first 
read the works of Derham, Nieuwentiet, and Lyonet, 
I should say that the full and life-like conviction of a 
gracious Creator is the proof (at all events, performs 
the office and answers all the purpose of a proof) of 
the wisdom and benevolence in the construction of 
the creature. 

Do I blame this ? Do I wish it to be otherwise ? 
God forbid ! It is only one of its accidental, but too 
frequent, consequences, of which I complain, and 
against which I protest. I regret nothing that tends 
to make the light become the life of men, even as 
the life in the eternal Word is their only and single 
true light. But I do regret, that in after years — when 
by occasion of some new dispute on some old heresy, 
or any other accident, the attention has for the first 
time been distinctly attracted to the superstructure 
raised on these fundamental truths, or to truths of 
later revelation supplemental of these and not less 



188 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

important — all the doubts and difficulties, that can 
not but arise where the understanding, the mind of 
the fleshy is made the measure of spiritual things 
all the sense of strangeness and seeming contradiction 
in terms ; all the marvel and the mystery, that be- 
long equally to both, are first thought of and applied 
in objection exclusively to the latter. I would disturb 
no man's faith in the great articles of the (falsely so 
called) religion of nature. But before a man re- 
jects, and calls on other men to reject, the revelations 
of the Gospel and the religion of all Christendom, 
I would have him place himself in the state and under 
all the privations of a Simonides, when in the fortieth 
day of his meditation the sage and philosophic poet 
abandoned the problem in despair. Ever and anon 
he seemed to have hold of the truth ; but when he 
asked himself what he meant by it, it escaped from 
him, or resolved itself into meanings, that destroyed 
each other. I would have the sceptic, while yet a 
sceptic only, seriously consider whether a doctrine, 
of the truth of which a Socrates could obtain no other 
assurance than what he derived from his strong wish 
that it should be true; and which Plato found a 
mystery hard to discover, and when discovered, com- 
municable only to the fewest of men ; can, conso- 
nantly with history or common sense, be classed 
among the articles, the belief of which is insured to 
all men by their mere common sense ? Whether with- 
out gross outrage to fact, they can be said to consti- 
tute a religion of nature, or a natural theology ante- 
cedent to revelation, or superseding its necessity?* 

* A dditional note. — N.B. These remarks on a religion of 
Nature apply to the Belief in the existence, the personality 
and the providence of a one only God, and to the Belief of a 
Future State in connection with and dependence, on the Belief 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 18ft 

Yes I in pretention (for there is little chance, I fear 
of a cure) of the pugnacious dogmatism of partial 
reflection, I would prescribe to every man who feels a 
commencing alienation from the Catholic faith, and 
whose studies and attainments authorise him to argue 
on the subject at all, a patient and thoughtful perusal 
of the arguments and representations which Bayle 
supposes to have passed through the mind of Simo- 
nides. Or I should be fully satisfied if I could in- 
duce these eschewers of mystery to give a patient, 
manly, and impartial perusal to the single treatise of 
Pomponatius, De Fato* 

When they have fairly and satisfactorily overthrown 
the objections and cleared away the difficulties urged 
by this sharp-witted Italian against the doctrines 
which they profess to retain, then let them commence 
their attack on those which they reject. As far as 
the supposed irrationality of the latter is the ground 
of argument, I am much deceived if, on reviewing 
their forces, they would not find the ranks woefully 
thinned by the success of their own fire in the preced- 
ing engagement — unless, indeed, by pure heat of con- 
troversy, and to storm the lines of their antagonists, 

of God as a moral Judge — and not to the mere assurance of 
a Soul that survives the Body. This latter is, I doubt not, 
natural to man. (See Aphorism xxiii. and Comment.) It 
may therefore be called a "' Faith of Xature/' but it is not a 
Religion of Xature— or rather, it is not Religion at all. 

* The philosopher, whom the Inquisition would have 
burnt alive as an Atheist, had net Leo X. and Cardinal 
Bembo decided that the work might be formidable to those 
eemi-pagan Christians who regarded revelation as a mere 
make-weight to their boasted religion of nature ; but con- 
tained nothing dangerous to the Catholic Church or offensive 
to a true believer. (He was born at Mantua in 1462 and 
died in 1525. — Ed.) 



190 AIDS TC REFLECTION. 

they can bring to life again the arguments which they 
had themselves killed off in the defence of their own 
positions. In vain shall we seek for any other mode 
of meeting the broad facts of the scientific Epicurean, 
or the requisitions and queries of the all-analysing 
Pyrrhonist, than by challenging the tribunal to which 
they appeal, as incompetent to try the question. In 
order to non-suit the infidel plaintiff, we must remove 
the cause from the faculty, that judges according to 
sense, and whose judgments, therefore, are valid only 
on objects of sense, to the superior courts of conscience 
and intuitive reason. The words I speak unto you, 
are Spirit, and such only are life, that is, have an 
inward and actual power abiding in them. 

But the same truth is at once shield and bow. The 
shaft of Atheism glances aside from it to strike and 
pierce the breast-plate of the heretic. Well for the 
latter, if, plucking the weapon from the wound, he re- 
cognises an arrow from his own quiver, and abandons 
a cause that connects him with such confederates ! 
An insight into the proper functions and subaltern 
rank of the understanding may not, indeed, disarm the 
Psilan thro pis t of his metaphorical glosses, or of his 
versions fresh from the forge, with no other stamp 
than the private mark of the individual manufacturer ; 
but it will deprive him of the only rational pretext for 
having recourse to tools so liable to abuse, and of 
such perilous example. 

COMMENT. 

Since the preceding pages were composed, and dur- 
ing an interim of depression and disqualification, I 
heard with a delight and an interest which I might 
without hyperbole call medicinal, that the contradis- 
tinction of the understanding from reason, — for which 



ON SPIRITUAL KELIGION. 191 

during twenty years I have been contending, casting 
my bread upon the waters with a perseverance which 
in the existing state of the public taste, nothing but 
the deepest conviction of its importance could have 
inspired — has been lately sanctioned by the present 
distinguished Professor of Anatomy, in the course of 
lectures given by him at the Royal College of Surgeons, 
on the zoological part of natural history ; and, if I am 
rightly informed, in one of the eloquent and impressive 
introductory discourses.* In explaining the nature of 
Instinct, as deduced from the actions and tendencies 
of animals successively presented to the observation 
of the comparative physiologist in the ascending scale 
of organic life — or rather, I should have said, in an 
attempt to determine that precise import of the term, 
which is required by the facts f — the professor ex- 

* The allusion is to Mr. Green ; and the passage to which 
the Author refers, will be found in an Appendix, reprinted 
from the "Vital Dynamics." — Ed. 

f The word, Instinct, brings together a number of facts 
into one class by the assertion of a common ground, the 
nature of which ground it determines negatively only, — that 
is, the word does not explain what this common ground is ; 
but simply indicates that there is such a ground, and that it 
is different in kind from that in which the responsible and 
consciously voluntary actions of men originate. Thus, in its 
true and primary import, Instinct stands in antithesis to 
Reason ; and the perplexity and contradictory statements 
into which so many meritorious naturalists, and popular 
writers on natural history (Priscilla "Wakefield, Kirby, 
Spence, Htiber, and even Reimarus) have fallen on this 
subject, arise wholly from their taking the word in opposition 
to Understanding. I notice this, because I would- not lose 
any opportunity of impressing on the mind of my Youthful 
readers the important truth that language as the embodied 
and articulated spirit of the race, as the growth and emana- 
tion of a people, and not the work of any individual wit or 



1 ( J2 AIDS TO REFLECTION 

plained the nature of what I have elsewhere cafled the 
adaptive power, that is, the faculty of adapting means 
to a proximate end. I mean here a relative end — that 
which relatively to one thing is an end, though rela- 
tively to some other it is in itself a mean. It is to be 
regretted that we have no single word to express those 
ends, that are not the end : for the distinction between 
those and an end in the proper sense of the term is 
an important one. The Professor, I say, not only 
explained, first, the nature of the adaptive power in 
genere, and, secondly, the distinct character of the same 
power as it exists specifically and exclusively in the hu- 
man being, and acquires the name of understanding ; 
but he did it in a way which gave the whole sum and 
substance of my convictions, of all I had so long 
wished, and so often, but with such imperfect success, 
attempted to convey, free from all semblance of para- 
doxy, and from all occasion of offence — omnem of- 
fendiculi ansam pracidens.* It is, indeed for the 

will, is often inadequate, sometimes deficient, but never 
false or delusive. We have only to master the true origin 
and original import of any native and abiding word, to find 
in it, if not the solution of the facts expressed by it, yet a 
finger-mark pointing to the road on which this solution is to 
be sought. 

* Ntquc quicquam addubito, quin ea candidis omnibus fan at 
satis. Quid autem facias istis qui vel ob ingenii pcrtinaciam 
sibi satisfieri nolint, vel stupidiores sint quam ut satisf actionem 
intettigant? Nam quemadmodum Simonides dixit, Thesscdns 
hebetiores esse quam ut possint a se decipi, ita quosdam vide as 
stupidiores quam ut placavi queant. Adhuc non mirum est 
invenire quod calumnietur qui nihil aliud qucerit nisi quo'i 
calumnietur. (Erasmi Epist. ad Dorpium.) At all events, the 
paragraph passing through the medium of my own prepos- 
sessions, if any fault be found with it, the fault probably, 
and the blame certainly, belongs to the reporter. 



ON SPIKITUAL RELIGION. 193 

fragmentary reader only that I have any scruple. In 
those who have had the patience to accompany me so 
far on the up-hill road to manly principles, I can have 
no reason to guard against that disposition to hasty 
offence from anticipation of consequences — that faith- 
less and loveless spirit of fear which plunged Galileo 
into a prison ; * — a spirit most unworthy of an edu- 
cated man, who ought to have learnt that the mistakes 
of scientific men have never injured Christianity, 
while every new truth discovered by them has either 
added to its evidence, or prepared the mind for its 
reception. 

* And which (I may add) in a more enlightened age, and 
in a Protestant country, impelled more than one German 
University to anathematise Fr. Hoffman's discovery of 
carbonic acid gas, and of its effects on animal life, as hostile 
to religion and tending to atheism ! Three or four students 
at the University of Jena, in the attempt to raise a spirit for 
the discovery of a supposed hidden treasure, were strangled 
or poisoned by the fumes of the charcoal they had been 
burning in a close garden-house of a vineyard near Jena, 
while employed in their magic fumigations and charms. One 
only was restored to life ; and from his account of the noises 
and spectres (in his ears and eyes) as he was losing his senses, 
it was taken for granted that the bad spirit had destroyed 
them. Frederick Hoffman admitted that it was a very bad 
spirit that had tempted them, the spirit of avarice and folly; 
and that a very noxious spirit (gas, or Geist) was the imme- 
diate cause of their death. But he contended that this latter 
spirit was the spirit of charcoal, which would have produced 
the same effect, had the young men been chaunting psalms 
instead of incantations ; and acquitted the Devil of all direct 
concern in the business. The theological faculty took the 
alarm : even physicians pretended to be horror-stricken at 
Hoffman's audacity. The controversy and its appendages 
embittered several years of this great and good man's life. 



194 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



ON INSTINCT IN CONNEXION WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. 

It is evident that the definition of a genus or class 
is an adequate definition only of the lowest species of 
that genus : for each higher species is distinguished 
from the lower hy some additional character, while the 
general definition includes only the characters common 
to all the species. Consequently it describes the 
lowest only. Now I distinguish a genus or kind of 
powers under the name of adaptive power, and give 
as its generic definition — the power of selecting and 
adapting means to proximate ends ; and as an instance 
of the lowest species of this genus, I take the stomach 
of a caterpillar. I ask myself, under what words I 
can generalise the action of this organ : and I see, 
that it selects and adapts the appropriate means (that 
is, the assimilable part of the vegetable congesta) to 
the proximate end, that is, the growth or reproduction 
of the insect's body. This we call Vital Power, or 
vita propria of the stomach ; and this being the lowest 
species, its definition is the same with the definition 
of the kind. 

Well ! from the power of the stomach I pass to the 
power exerted by the whole animal. I trace it wan- 
dering from spot to spot, and plant to plant, till it 
finds the appropriate vegetable ; and again on this 
chosen vegetable, I mark it seeking out and fixing on 
the part of the plant, bark, leaf, or petal, suited to its 
nourishment : or (should the animal have assumed the 
butterfly form), to the deposition of its eggs, and the 
sustentation of the future larva. Here I see a power 
of selecting and adapting means to proximate ends 
according to circumstances : and this higher species 
of adaptive power we call Instinct. 

Lastlv, I reflect on the facts narrated and de- 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 195 

scribed in the preceding extracts from Huber, and 
see a power of selecting and adapting the proper 
means to the proximate ends, according to varying 
circumstances. And what shall we call this yet 
higher species ? We name the former, Instinct : wo 
must call this Instinctive Intelligence. 

Here then we have three powers of the same 
kind ; life, instinct, and instinctive intelligence : the 
essential characters that define the genus existing 
equally in all three. But in addition to these, I 
find one other character common to the highest and 
lowest : namely, that the purposes are all manifestly 
predetermined by the peculiar organisation of the 
animals ; and though it may not be possible to discover 
any such immediate dependency in all the actions, 
yet the actions being determined by the purposes, 
the result is equivalent ; and both the actions and 
the purposes are all in a necessitated reference to 
the preservation and continuance of the particular 
animal or the progeny. There is selection, but not 
choice ; volition rather than will. The possible know- 
ledge of a thing, or the desire to have that thing 
represeutable by a distinct correspondent thought, 
does not, in the animal, suffice to render the thing 
an object, or the ground of a purpose. I select and 
adapt the proper means to the separation of a stone 
from a rock, which I neither can, nor desire to use 
for food, shelter, or ornament : because, perhaps, I 
wish to measure the angles of its primary crystals, 
or, perhaps, for no better reason than the apparent 
difficulty of loosening the stone — sit pro ratione 
voluntas — and thus make a motive out of the absence 
of all motive, and a reason out of the arbitrary will to 
act without any reason. 

Now what is the conclusion from these premisses ? 
Evidently this : that if I suppose the adaptive power 

o2 



196 ArDS TO REFLECTION. 

in its highest species, or form of instinctive intelli 
gence, to co-exist with reason, free will, and self- 
consciousness, it instantly* becomes Understanding: 
in other words, that understanding differs indeed 
from the noblest form of instinct, but not in itself or 
in its own essential properties, but in consequence of 
its co- existence with far higher powers of a diverse 
kind in one and the same subject. Instinct in a 
rational, responsible, and self-conscious animal, is 
Understanding. 

Such I apprehend to be the true view and expo- 
sition of Instinct ; and in confirmation of its truth, I 
would merely request my readers, from the numerous 
well-authenticated instances on record, to recall some 
one of the extraordinary actions of dogs for the pre- 
servation of their masters' lives, and even for the 
avenging of their deaths. In these instances we 
have the third species of the adaptive power in con- 
nexion with an apparently moral end — with an end 
in the proper sense of the word. Here the adaptive 
power co-exists with a purpose apparently voluntary, 
and the action seems neither pre-determined by the 
organisation of the animal, nor in any direct reference 
to his own preservation, nor to the continuance of 
his race. It is united with an imposing semblance 
of gratitude, fidelity, and disinterested love. We not 
only value the faithful brute; we attribute worth to 
him. This, I admit, is a problem, of which I have 
no solution to offer. One of the wisest of uninspired 
men has not hesitated to declare the dog a great 
mystery, on account of this dawning of a moral 
nature, unaccompanied by any the least evidence of 
reason, in whichever of the two senses we interpret 
the word — whether as the practical reason, that is, 
the power of proposing an ultimate end, the deter- 
minabilitv of the will bv ideas : or as the sciential 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 197 

reason, that is, the faculty of concluding universal 
and necessary truths from particular and contingent 
appearances. But in a question respecting the pos- 
session of reason, the absence of all proof is tanta- 
mount to a proof of the contrary. It is, however, by 
no means equally clear to me, that the dog may not 
possess an analogon of words, which I have elsewhere 
shown to be the proper objects of the "faculty, 
judging according to sense." 

But to return to my purpose : I entreat the Reader 
to reflect on any one fact of this kind, whether occur 
ring in his own experience, or selected from the 
numerous anecdotes of the Dog preserved in the 
writings of zoologists. I will then confidently appeal 
to him, whether it is in his power not to consider 
the faculty displayed in these actions as the same in 
kind with the understanding, however inferior in 
degree. Or should he even in these instances prefer 
calling it instinct, and this in ccmtra-distinction from 
understanding, I call on him to point out the boun- 
dary between the two, the chasm or partition- wall that 
divides or separates the one from the other. If he 
can, he will have done what none before him have 
been able to do, though many and eminent men have 
tried hard for it : and my recantation shall be among 
the first trophies of his success. If he cannot, I must 
infer that he is controlled by his dread of the con- 
sequences, by an apprehension of some injury re- 
sulting to religion or morality from this opinion ; 
and I shall console myself with the hope, that in the 
sequel of this Work he will find proofs of the directly 
contrary tendency. Not only in this view of the 
Understanding, as differing in degree from Instinct, 
and in kind from Reason, innocent in its possible 
influences on the religious character, but it is an in- 
dispensable preliminary to the removal of the most 



198 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

formidable obstacles to an intelligent belief of the 
peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, of the characteristic 
articles of the Christian Faith, with which the advo- 
cates of the truth in Christ have to contend ; the evil 
heart of unbelief alone excepted. 

REFLECTIONS INTRODUCTORY TO APHORISM X. 

The most momentous question a man can ask is, 
Have I a Saviour ? And yet as far as the individua' 
querist is concerned, it is premature and to no 
purpose, unless another question has been previously 
put and answered, (alas ! too generally put after the 
wounded conscience has already given the answer!) 
namely, Have I any need of a Saviour? For him 
who needs none (0 bitter irony of the evil Spirit, 
whose whispers the proud soul takes for its own 
thoughts, and knows not how the tempter is scoffing 
the while !) there is none, as long as he feels no 
need. On the other hand, it is scarcely possible to 
have answered this question in the affirmative, and 
not ask — first, in what the necessity consists — 
secondly, whence it proceeded — and, thirdly, how 
far the answer to this second question is or is not 
contained in the answer to the first. I entreat the 
intelligent Eeader, who has taken me as his tempo- 
rary guide on the straight, but yet, from the number 
of cross roads, difficult way of religious inquiry, to 
halt a moment, and consider the main points which, 
in this last division of my Work, have been already 
offered for his reflection. I have attempted, then, 
to fix the proper meaning of the words, Nature and 
Spirit, the one being the antithesis to the other : so 
that the most general and negative definition of 
nature is, whatever is not spirit ; and vice versa of 
spirit, that which is not comprehended in nature ; or 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 199 

in the language of our elder divines, that which 
transcends nature. But Nature is the term in which 
we comprehend all things that are representable in 
the forms of time and space, and subjected to the 
relations of cause and effect : and the cause of the 
existence of which, therefore, is to be sought for 
perpetually in something antecedent. The word 
itself expresses this in the strongest manner possible: 
Natura, that which is about to be born, that which 
is always becoming. It follows, therefore, that what- 
ever originates its own acts, or in any sense contains 
in itself the cause of its own state, must be spiritual, 
and consequently supernatural : yet not on that 
account necessarily miraculous. And such must the 
responsible Will in us be, if it be at all. 

A prior step has been to remove all misconceptions 
from the subject ; to show the reasonableness of a 
belief in the reality and real influence of a universal 
and divine Spirit ; the compatibility and possible 
communion of such a spirit with the spiritual in 
principle ; and the analogy offered by the most unde- 
niable truths of natural philosophy. * 

* It has in its consequences proved no trifling evil to the 
Christian world, that Aristotle's definitions of Nature are all 
grounded on the petty and rather rhetorical than philo- 
sophical antithesis of nature to art — a conception inadequate 
to the demands even of his philosophy. Hence in the 
progress of his reasoning, he confounds the natura naturata 
(that is, the sum total of the facts and phenomena of the 
senses) with an hypothetical natura notoirans, a Goddess 
Nature, that has no better claim to a place in any sober 
system of natural philosophy than the Goddess Multitudo ; 
yet to which Aristotle not rarely gives the name and attri- 
butes of the Supreme Being. The result was, that the idea 
of God thus identified with this hypothetical nature becomes 
itself but an hypothesis, or at best but a precarious inference 



200 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

These views of the Spirit, and of the Will as 
spiritual, form the ground-work of my scheme. 
Among the numerous corollaries or appendents, the 
first that presented itself respects the question : — 
whether there is any faculty in man by which a 
knowledge of spiritual truths, or of any truths not 
abstracted from nature, is rendered possible ; and an 
answer is attempted in the comment on Aphorism 
VIII. And here I beg leave to remark, that in this 
comment the only novelty, and if there be merit, the 
only merit is — that there being two very different 
meanings, and two different words, I have here and 
in former works appropriated one meaning to one of 
the words, and the other to the other — instead of 
using the words indifferently and by hap-hazard : a 
confusion, the ill effects of which in this instance are 
so great and of such frequent occurrence in the works 
of our ablest philosophers and divines, that I should 
select it before all others in proof of Hobbes' maxim : 
that it is a short down-hill passage from errors in 
words to errors in things. The difference of the 
Reason from the Understanding, and the imperfec- 
tion and limited sphere of the latter, have been 
asserted by many both before and since Lord Bacon.;* 

from incommensurate premisses and on disputable principles : 
while in other passages, God is confounded with (and every- 
where, in Aristotle's genuine works) included in the universe : 
which most grievous error it is the great and characteristic 
merit of Plato to have avoided and denounced. 

* Take one passage among many from the Posthumous 
Tracts (1660) of John Smith, not the least star in that bright 
constellation of Cambridge men, the contemporaries of 
Jeremy Taylor. '* While we reflect on our own idea of 
Reason, we know that our souls are not it, but only 
partake of it; and that we have it Kara ficde^v and not 
kot oixrriiv. Neither can it be called a faculty, but far rathe* 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 201 

but still the habit of using reason and understanding 
as synonymes acted as a disturbing force. Some it 
led into mysticism, others it set on explaining away 
a clear difference in kind into a mere superiority in 
degree : and it partially eclipsed the truth for all. 

In close connexion with this, and therefore forming 
the comment on the Aphorism next following, is the 
subject of the legitimate exercise of the Understand- 
ing, and its limitation to objects of sense ; with the 
errors both of unbelief and of misbelief, which result 
from its extension beyond the sphere of possible ex- 
perience. Wherever the forms of reasoning appropriate 
only to the natural world are applied to spiritual 
realities, it may be truly said, that the more strictly 
logical the reasoning is in all its parts, the more 
irrational it is as a whole. 

To the reader thus armed and prepared, I now ven- 
ture to present the so-called mysteries of Faith, that 
is, the peculiar tenets and especial constituents of 
Christianity,, or religion in spirit and in truth. In 
right order I must have commenced with the articles 
of the Trinity and Apostasy, including the question 
respecting the origin of Evil, and the Incarnation of 
the Word. And could I have followed this order, 
some difficulties that now press on me would have 
been obviated. But the limits of the present Volume 
rendered it alike impracticable and inexpedient ; for 
the necessity of my argument would have called forth 
certain hard though most true sayings, respecting 

a light, which we enjoy, but the source of which is not in 
ourselves, nor rightly by any individual to be denominated 
riiinc" This pure intelligence he then proceeds to contrast 
with the discursive faculty, that is, the Understanding. 
(See the notes on this remarkable writer in the Author's 
"Literary Remains," vol. hi. p. 416. — Ed.) 



202 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the hollowness and tricksy sophistry of the so-called 
"natural theology," "religion of nature," "light of 
nature," and the like, which a brief exposition could 
not save from innocent misconceptions, much less 
protect against plausible misinterpretation. And yet 
both reason and experience have convinced me, that 
in the greater number of our Alogi, who feed on the 
husks of Christianity, the disbelief of the Trinity, 
the divinity' of Christ included, has its origin and 
support in the assumed self-evidence of this natural 
theology, and in their ignorance of the insurmount- 
able difficulties which on the same mode of reason- 
ing press upon the fundamental articles of their 
own remnant of a creed. But, arguments, which 
would prove the falsehood of a known truth, must 
themselves be false, and can prove the falsehood of 
no other position in codem genere. 

This hint I have thrown out as a spark that may 
perhaps fall where it will kindle. And worthily 
might the wisest of men make inquisition into the 
three momentous points here spoken of, for the pur- 
poses of speculative insight, and for the formation of 
enlarged and systematic views of the destination of 
Man, and the dispensation of God. But the practical 
Inquirer — (I speak not of those who inquire for the 
gratification of curiosity, and still less of those who 
labour as students only to shine as disputants; but 
of one, who seeks the truth, because he feels the 
want of it,) — the practical inquirer, I say, hath al- 
ready placed his foot on the rock, if he have satisfied 
himself that whoever needs not a Redeemer is more 
than human. Remove from him the difficulties and 
objections that oppose or perplex his belief of a cru- 
cified Saviour ; convince him of the reality of sin, 
which is impossible without a knowledge of its true 
nature and inevitable consequences ; and then satisfy 



OX SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 203 

him as to the fact historically, and as to the truth 
spiritually, of a redemption therefrom by Christ ; do 
this for him, and there is little fear that he will 
permit either logical quirks or metaphysical puzzles 
to contravene the plain dictate of his common sense, 
that the sinless One who redeemed mankind from sin, 
must have been more than man ; and that He who 
brought light and immortality into the world, could 
not in his own nature have been an inheritor of death 
and darkness. It is morally impossible that a man 
with these convictions should suffer the objection of 
incomprehensibility, and this on a subject of faith, to 
overbalance the manifest absurdity and contradiction 
in the notion of a Mediator between God and the hu- 
man race, at the same infinite distance from God as 
the race for whom he mediates. 

The origin of Evil, meanwhile, is a question inter- 
esting only to the metaphysician, and in a system of 
moral and religious philosophy. The man of sober 
mind who seeks for truths that possess a moral and 
practical interest, is content to be certain, first, that 
evil must have had a beginning, since otherwise it 
must either be God, or a co-eternal and co-equal rival 
of God ; both impious notions, and the latter foolish 
to boot : — secondly that it could not originate in 
God ; for if so, it would be at once evil and not evil, 
or God would be at once God, that is, infinite good- 
ness, and not God — both alike impossible positions. 
Instead, therefore, of troubling himself with this 
barren controversy, he more profitably turns his 
inquiries to that evil which most concerns himself, 
and of which he may find the origin. 

Tbe entire scheme of necessary Faith may be re- 
duced to two heads ; first the object and occasion, 
and secondly, the fact and effect, — of our redemption 
by Christ : and to this view does the order of the 



204 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

following Comments correspond. I have begun with 
Original Sin, and proceeded in the following Aphorism 
to the doctrine of Redemption. The Comments on 
the remaining Aphorisms are all subsidiary to these, 
or written in the hope of making the minor tenets of 
general belief be believed in a spirit worthy of these. 
They are, in short, intended to supply a febrifuge 
against aguish scruples and horrors, the hectic of the 
soul; — and, in Milton's words, "for servile and 
thrall-like fear, to substitute that adoptive and cheer- 
ful boldness, which our new alliance with God re- 
quires of us as Christians." Not the origin of evil, 
not the chronology of sin, or the chronicles of the 
original sinner; but sin originant, underived from 
without, and no passive link in the adamantine chain 
of effects, each of which is in its turn an instrument 
of causation, but no one of them a cause ; — not with 
sin, inflicted, which would be a calamity : — not with 
sin (that is, an evil tendency) implanted, for which 
let the planter be responsible ; — but I begin with 
original sin. And for this purpose I have selected 
the Aphorism from the ablest and most formidable 
antagonist of this doctrine, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 
and from the most eloquent work of this most elo- 
quent of divines.' 1 ' Had I said, of men, Cicero would 
forgive me, and Demosthenes nod assent ! t 

* See the notes on J. Taylor, " Literary Remains," iii. 
pp. 295, 334.— Ed. 

f It doe? not appear that the Church of England demands 
the literal understanding of the document contained in the 
second (from verse 8) and third chapters of Genesis as a 
point of faith, or regards a different interpretation as affecting 
the orthodoxy of the interpreter;* divines of the most 
unimpeachable orthodoxy, and the most averse to the alio* 



* See Bp. Horsley's Sermon xvi. ; 2 Peter i. 20. 21- —Ed. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 205 

APHORISM X. 

ON ORIGINAL SIN. 

JEREMY TAYLOR. 

The question is not whether there be any such 
thing as original Sin : for it is certain, and confessed 
on all hands almost. For my part I cannot but con- 

gorising of Scripture history in general, having from the 
earliest ages of the Christian Church adopted or permitted 
it in this instance. And indeed no unprejudiced man can 
pretend to doubt, that if in any other work of Eastern origin 
he met with trees of life and of knowledge ; or talking and 
conversable snakes, 

Inque rei signum serpentem serpere jussum ; 

he would want no other proofs that it was an allegory he 
was reading, and intended to be understood as such. Nor, 
if we suppose him conversant with Oriental works of any- 
thing like the same antiquity, could it surprise him to find 
events of true history in connexion with, or historical 
personages among the actors and interlocutors of, the 
parable. In the temple-language of Egypt the serpent was 
the symbol of the understanding in its twofold function, 
namely, as the faculty of means to proximate or medial ends, 
analogous to the instinct of the more intelligent animals, 
ant, bee, beaver, and the like, and opposed to the practical 
reason, as the determinant of the ultimate end ; and again, 
as the discursive and logical faculty possessed individually 
by each individual — the Xoyos ip knarry, in distinction from 
the vovs, that is, intuitive reason, the source of ideas and 
absolute truths, and the principle of the necessary and the 
universal in our affirmations and conclusions. Without or 
in contravention to the reason — (that is, the spiritual mind 
of St. Paul, and the light that lighteth every man of St. John) 
— this understanding ((ppSvrj/xa capubs, or carnal mind) 
becomes the sophistic principle, the wily tempter to evil by 
counterfeit good ; the pander and advocate of the passions 
and appetites : ever in league with, and always first applying 



206 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

fess that to be, which I feel and groan under, and by 
which all the world is miserable. 

to, the desire, as the inferior nature in man, the woman in 
our humanity; and through the desire prevailing on the will 
(the manhood, virtus) against the command of the universal 
reason, and against the light of reason in the will itself. 
This essential inherence of an intelligential principle (</>&$ 
voep6v) in the will (apxb 6€\rjTucf}) 3 or rather the Will itself 
thus considered, the Greeks expressed by an appropriate 
word, &ov\t). This, but little differing from Origen's inter- 
pretation or hypothesis, is supported and confirmed by the 
very old tradition of the homo androgynus, that is, that the 
original man, the individual first created, was bi-sexual; 
a chimaera, of which, and of many other mythological 
traditions, the most probable explanation is, that they were 
originally symbolical glyphs or sculptures, and afterwards 
translated into words, yet literally, that is, into the common 
names of the several figures and images composing the 
symbol ; while the symbolic meaning was left to be decy- 
phered as before, and sacred to the initiate. As to the 
abstruseness and subtlety of the conceptions, this is so far 
from being an objection to this oldest gloss on this venerable 
relic of Semitic, not impossibly antediluvian, philosophy, 
that to those who have carried their researches farthest back 
into Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian antiquity, it will 
seem a strong confirmation. Or if I chose to address the 
sceptic in the language of the day, I might remind him that 
as alchemy went before chemistry, and astrology before 
astronomy, so in all countries of civilised man have meta- 
physics outrun common sense. Fortunately for us that they 
have so ! For from all we know of the unmet aphy si cal 
tribes of New Holland and elsewhere, a common sense not 
preceded by metaphysics is no very enviable possession. 0, 
be not cheated, my youthful Reader, by this shallow prate ! 
The creed of true common sense is composed of the results 
of scientific meditation, observation, and experiment, as far 
as they are generally intelligible. It differs, therefore, in 
different countries, and in every different age of the same 



ON SPIRITUAL EELIGJON. 207 

Adam turned his back upon tbe sun, and dwelt in 
tbe dark and the shadow. He sinned and fell into 

country. The common sense of a people is the moveable 
index of its average judgment and information. Without 
metaphysics science could have had no language, and 
common sense no materials. 

But to return to my subject. It cannot be denied that 
the Mosaic narrative, thus interpreted, gives a just and 
faithful exposition of the birth and parentage, and successive 
moments of phenomenal sin (peccatum phenomenon ; crimen 
primarium et commune), that is, of sin as it reveals itself in 
time, and is an immediate object of consciousness. And in 
this sense most truly does the Apostle assert, that in Adam 
we all fell. The first human sinner is the adequate repre- 
sentative of all his successors. And with no less truth may 
it be said, that it is the same Adam that falls in every man, 
and from the same reluctance to abandon the too dear and 
undivorceable Eve ; and the same Eve tempted by the same 
serpentine and perverted understanding, which, framed 
originally to be the interpreter of the reason and the minis- 
tering angel of the spirit, is henceforth sentenced and bound 
over to the service of the animal nature, its needs and its 
cravings, dependent on the senses for all its materials, with 
the world of sense for its appointed sphere : Upon thy belly 
shall thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. 
I have shown elsewhere, that as the instinct of the mere 
intelligence differs in degree, not in kind, and circum- 
stantially, not essentially, from the vis vita 3 , or vital power in 
the assimilative and digestive functions of the stomach and 
other organs of nutrition, even so the Understanding in itself, 
and distinct from the Reason and Conscience, differs in degree 
only from the instinct in the animal. It is still but a least 
of the field, though more subtle than any beast of the field, and 
therefore in its corruption and perveision cursed above any ; 
— a pregnant word ! of which if the reader wants an expo- 
sition or paraphrase, he may find one more than two thousand 
years old among the fragments of the poet Menander. This 
is tfie understanding which in its every thought is to be brought 



208 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

God's displeasure, and was made naked of all his su- 
pernatural endowments, was ashamed and sentenced 

under obedience to faith ; which it can scarcely fail to be, if 
only it be first subjected to the reason, of which spiritual 
faith is even the blossoming and the fructifying process. For it 
is indifferent whether I say that Faith is the interpenetration 
of the Reason and the Will, or that it is at once the assurance 
and the commencement of the approaching union between 
the reason and the intelligible realities, the living and sub- 
stantial truths, that are even in this life its most proper 
objects. 

I have thus put the reader in possession of my own 
opinions respecting the narrative in Gen. ii. and iii. v E<rn* 
ovv 5)/, ws efxolye 5o/c€?, 'Upos fivOos, aArjOecrrarov kcl\ apxoLi6rarov 
<pi\o(r6(f)7iiLLaj evfftfizcri jj.lv cefiao-fia, (Tvvsto'is re (potvav is 8e 
to irav epfXTjvecDS x arL C €l ' Or I might ask with Augustine, 
why not both ] Why not at once symbol and history ] Or 
rather how should it be otherwise 1 Must not of necessity 
the first man be a symbol of mankind in the fullest force of 
the word symbol, rightly defined ; — a sign included in the 
idea which it represents ; — that is, an actual part chosen to 
represent the whole, as a lip with a chin prominent is a 
symbol of man ; or a lower form or species of a higher in the 
same kind ; thus magnetism is the symbol of vegetation, and 
of the vegetative and reproductive power in animals; the 
instinct of the ant-tribe or the bee is a symbol of the human 
understanding. And this definition of the word is of great 
practical importance, inasmuch as the symbolical is hereby 
distinguished toto genere from the allegoric and metaphorical. 
But, perhaps, parables, allegories, and allegorical or typical 
applications, are incompatible with inspired Scripture ! The 
writings of St. Paul are sufficient proof of the contrary. Yet 
I readily acknowledge that allegorical applications are one 
thing, and allegorical interpretation another ; and that where 
there is no ground for supposing such a sense to have entered 
into the intent and purpose of the sacred penman, they are 
not to be commended. So far indeed am I from entertaining 
any predilection for them, or any favourable opinion of the 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. >20d 

to death, and deprived of the means of long life, and 
of the sacrament and instrument of immortality, I 
mean the tree of life.* He then fell under the evils 
of a sickly body, and a passionate, ignorant, and unin 
structed soul. His sin made him sickly, his sickness 
made him peevish : his sin left him ignorant, his ig 
norance made him foolish and unreasonable. His sin 
left him to his nature : and by his nature, whoever 
was to be born at all, was to be born a child, and to 
do before he could understand, and to be bred under 
laws to which he was always bound, but which could 
not always be exacted ; and he was to choose when 
he could not reason, and had passions most strong 
when he had his understanding most weak ; and the 
more need he had of a curb, the less strength he had 
to use it ! And this being the case of all the world, 
what was every man's evil became all men's greater 
evil ; and though alone it was very bad, yet when 
they came together it was made much worse. Like 
ships in a storm, every one alone hath enough to do 
to outride it ; but when they meet, besides the evils of 

Rabbinical commentators and traditioniets, from whom the 
fashion was derived, that in carry iug it as far as our own 
Church has carried it, I follow her judgment, not my own. 
Indeed I know but one other part of the Scriptures not 
universally held to be parabolical, which, not without the 
sanction of great authorities, I am disposed to regard as an 
apologue or parable, namely, the book of Jonah : the reasons 
for believing the Jewish Nation collectively to be therein 
impersonated seeming to me unanswerable. And it is my 
deliberate and conscientious conviction, that the proofs of 
such interpretation having been the intention of the inspired 
writer or compiler of the book of Genesis lie on the face of 
the narrative itself. 

* Rom. v. 14. — Who were they who had not sinned after 
the similitude of Adam's transgression; and over whom, 
notwithstanding, death reigned I 

V 



210 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the storm, they find the intolerable calamity of their 
mutual concussion ; and every ship that is ready to 
be oppressed with the tempest, is a worse tempest to 
every vessel against which it is violently dashed. So 
it is in mankind. Every man hath evil enough of 
his own, and it is hard for a man to live xqi to the 
rule of his own reason and conscience. But when he 
hath parents and children, friends and enemies, 
buyers and sellers, lawyers and clients, a family and 
a neighbourhood — then it is that every man dashes 
against another, and one relation requires what 
another denies ; and when one speaks another will 
contradict him ; and that which is well spoken is 
sometimes innocently mistaken ; and that upon a good 
cause produces an evil effect ; and by these, and ten 
thousand other concurrent causes, man is made more 
than most miserable.* 

COMMENT. 

The first question we should put to ourselves, 
when we have to read a passage that perplexes us in 
a work of authority, is : What does the writer mean 
by all this ? And tho second question should be, 
What does he intend by all this ? In the passage 
before us, Taylor's meaning is not quite clear. A sin 
is an evil which has its ground or origin in the agent, 
and not in the compulsion of circumstances. Cir- 
cumstances are compulsory from the absence of a 
power to resist or control them : and if this absence 
likewise be the effect of circumstance (that is, if it 
have been neither directly nor indirectly caused by the 
agent himself), the evil derives from the circumstances ; 
and therefore (in the Apostle's sense of the word, sin, 

* Deus JuslificatuSf with some slight omissions and altera- 
tions. — Ed. 



ON SPJEITUAL KELIGION. 211 

when he speaks of the exceeding sinfulness of sin 
such evil is not sin ; and the person who suffers it, 
or who is the compelled instrument of its infliction 
on others, may feel regret, but cannot feel remorse. 
So likewise of the word origin, original, or originant. 
The Reader cannot too early he warned that it is not 
applicable, and, without abuse of language, can never 
be applied to a mere link in a chain of effects, where 
each, indeed, stands in the relation of a cause to those 
that follow, but is at the same time the effect of all 
that precede. For in these cases a cause amounts to 
little more than an antecedent. At the utmost it 
means only a conductor of the causative influence ; 
and the old axiom, causa causce causa causati, applies 
with a never-ending regress to each several link, up 
the whole chain of nature. But this is Nature : and 
no natural thing or act can be called originant, or be 
truly said to have an origin * in any other. The 

* This sense of the word is implied even in its meta- 
phorical or figurative use. Thus we may say of a river that 
it originates in suck or such a fountain ; but the water of 
a canal is derived from such or suck a river. Tke power 
whick we call Nature, may be thus defined : a power subject 
to tke law of continuity, (lex continui ; nam in natura non 
datur saltus) wkick law tke kuman understanding, by a 
necessity arising out of its own constitution, can conceive 
only under tke form of cause and effect. Tkat tkis form or 
law of cause and effect is, relatively to tke world witkout, or 
to tkings as tkey subsist independently of our perceptions, 
only a form or mode of tkinking ; that it is a law inkerent 
in tke understanding itself just as the symmetry of tke 
miscellaneous objects seen by tke kaleidoscope inkeres in, 
or results from, the mechanism of tke kaleidoscope itself— 
tkis becomes evident as soon as we attempt to apply the 
preconception directly to any operation of nature. For in 
tkis case we are forced to represent tke cause as being at tke 
same instant tke effect, and vice versa tke effect as being tke 

p2 



£12 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

moment we assume an origin in nature, a true begin 
ning, an actual first — that moment we rise above 

cause — a relation which we seek to express by the terms 
action and re-action ; but for which the term reciprocal 
action or the law of reciprocity (Wechsdwirkung) would be 
both more accurate and more expressive. 

These are truths which can scarcely be too frequently 
impressed on the mind that is in earnest in the wish to 
reflect aright. Nature is a line in constant and continuous 
evolution. Its beginning is lost in the supernatural : and 
for our understanding therefore it must appear as a con- 
tinuous line without beginning or end. But where there is 
no discontinuity there can be no origination, and every 
appearance of origination in nature is but a shadow of our 
own casting. It is a reflection from our own will or spirit. 
Herein, indeed, the will consists. This is the essential 
character by which Will is opposed to Nature, as spirit, and 
raised above nature as self-determining spirit — this namely, 
that it is a power of originating an act or state. 

A young friend, or as he was pleased to describe himself, 
a pupil of mine, who is beginning to learn to think, asked 
me to explain by an instance what is meant by " originating 
an act or state." My answer was — This morning I awoke 
with a dull pain, which I knew from experience the getting 
up would remove : and yet by adding to the drowsiness and 
by weakening or depressing the volition (voluntas sensorialis 
seu mechanica) the very pain seemed to hold me back, to fix 
me, as it were, .to the bed. After a peevish ineffectual 
quarrel with this painful disinclination, I said to myself: 
Let me count twenty, and the moment I come to nineteen 
I will leap out of bed. So said, and so done. Now should 
you ever find yourself in the same or in a similar state, and 
should attend to the goings : on within you, you will learn 
what I mean by originating an act. At the same time you 
will see that it belongs exclusively to the will (arbitrium) ; 
that there is nothing analogous to it in outward experiences ; 
and that I had, therefore, no way of explaining it but by 
referring you to an act of your own, and to the peculial 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION 213 

nature, and are compelled to assume a supernatural 
power. (Gen. i. 1.) 

self-consciousness preceding and accompanying it. As we 
know what life is by being, so we know what will is by 
acting. That in willing, replied my friend, we appear to 
ourselves to constitute an actual beginning, and that this 
seems unique, and without any example in our sensible 
experience, or in the phcenomna of nature, is an undeniable 
fact. But may it not be an illusion arising from our igno- 
rance of the antecedent causes i You may suppose this, I 
rejoined: — that the soul of every man should impose a lie 
on itself; and that this lie, and the acting on the faith of its 
being the most important of all truths, and the most real of 
all realities, should form the main contra-distinctive character 
of humanity, and the only basis of that distinction between 
things and persons on which our whole moral and criminal 
law is grounded; — you may suppose this; — I cannot, as I 
could in the case of an arithmetical or geometrical propo- 
sition, render it impossible for you to suppose it. Whether 
you can reconcile such a supposition with the belief of an 
all-wise Creator is another question. But, taken singly, it is 
doubtless in your power to suppose this. Were it not, the 
belief of the contrary would be no subject of a command, no 
part of a moral or religious duty. You would not, however, 
suppose it without a reason. But all the pretexts that ever 
have been or ever can be offered for this supposition, are 
built on certain notions of the understanding that have been 
generalised from conceptions ; which conceptions, again, are 
themselves generalised or abstracted from objects of sense. 
Neither the one nor the other, therefore, have any force 
except in application to objects of sense, and within the 
sphere of sensible experience. What but absurdity can 
follow, if you decide on spirit by the laws of matter; — if 
you judge that, which if it be at all must be supersensual, 
by that faculty of your mind, the very definition of which is 
" the faculty judging according to sense 1 " These then are 
unworthy the name of reasons : they are only pretexts. But 
without reason to contradict your own consciousness in 



Q14 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

It will be an equal convenience to myself and to 
my Reader, to let it be agreed between us, that we 
will generalise the word circumstance, so as to under- 
stand by it, as often as it occurs in this Comment, all 
and every thing not connected with the Will, past or 
present, of a free agent. Even though it were the 
blood in the chambers of his heart, or his own inmost 
sensations, we will regard them as circumstantial ■ 
extrinsic, or from without. 

defiance of your own conscience, is contrary to reason. Such 
and such writers, you say, have made a great sensation. If 
so, I am sorry for it ; but the fact I take to be this. From 
a variety of causes the more austere sciences have fallen into 
discredit, and impostors have taken advantage of the general 
ignorance to give a sort of mysterious and terrific importance 
to a parcel of trashy sophistry, the authors of which would 
not have employed themselves more irrationally in submit- 
ting the works of Raffaelle or Titian to canons of criticism 
deduced from the sense of smell. Nay, less so. For here 
the objects and the organs are only disparate: while in the 
other case they are absolutely diverse. I conclude this note 
by reminding the Eeader, that my first object is to make 
myself understood. "When he is in full possession of my 
meaning, then let him consider whether it deserves to be 
received as the truth. Had it been my immediate purpose 
to make him believe me as well as understand me, I should 
have thought it necessary to warn him that a finite will 
does indeed originate an act, and may originate a state of 
being ; but yet only in and for the agent himself. A finite 
will constitutes a true beginning ; but with regard to the 
series of motions and changes by which the free act is 
manifested and made effectual, the finite will gives a begin- 
ning only by coincidence with that Absolute Will, which is 
at the same time Infinite Power. Such is the language of 
religion, and of philosophy too in the last instance. But I 
express the same truth in ordinary language when I say, that 
a finite will, or the will of a finite free-agent, acts outwardly 
by confluence with the laws of nature. 



Otf SPIRITUAL RELIGION. Q15 

la this sense of the word, original, and in the sense 
before given of sin, it is evident that the phrase, 
Original Sin, is a pleonasm, the epithet not adding to 
the thought, but only enforcing it. For if it be sin, 
it must be original ; and a state or act, that has not 
its origin in the will, may be calamity, deformity, 
disease, or mischief; but a sin it cannot be. It is 
not enough that the act appears voluntary, or that it 
is intentional ; or that it has the most hateful pas- 
sions or debasing appetite for its proximate cause and 
accompaniment. All these may be found in a mad- 
house, where neither law nor humanity permit us to 
condemn the actor of sin. The reason of law declares 
the maniac not a free-agent ; and the verdict follows 
of course — Not guilty. Now mania, as distinguished 
from idiocy, frenzy, delirium, hypochondria, and 
derangement (the last term used specifically to ex- 
press a suspension or disordered state of the under- 
standing or adaptive power), is the occultation or 
eclipse of reason, as the power of ultimate ends. The 
maniac, it is well known, is often found clever and 
inventive in the selection and adaptation of means to 
his ends ; but his ends are madness. He has lost 
his reason. For though reason, in finite beings, is 
not the will — or how could the will be opposed to the 
reason ? — yet it is the condition, the sine qua non of 
a free will. 

We will now return to the extract from Taylor on 
a theme of deep interest in itself, and trebly import- 
ant from its bearings. For without just and distinct 
views respecting the Article of Original Sin, it is 
impossible to understand aright any one of the 
peculiar doctrines of Christianity. Now my first 
complaint is, that the eloquent Bishop, while he admits 
the fact as established beyond controversy by uni- 
versal experience, yet leaves us wholly in the dark ag 



QIC AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

to the main point, supplies us with no answer to the 
principal question — why he names it Original Sin. 
It cannot he said, We know what the Bishop means, 
and what matters the name — for the nature of the 
fact, and in what light it should he regarded by us, 
depends on the nature of our answer to the question, 
whether Original Sin is or is not the right and proper 
designation. I can imagine the same quantum of 
sufferings, and yet if I had reason to regard them as 
symptoms of a commencing change, as pains of 
growth, the temporary deformity and misproportioDS 
of immaturity, or (as in the final sloughing of the 
caterpillar) the throes and struggles of the waxing or 
evolving Psyche, I should think it no Stoical flight 
to doubt, how T far I was authorised to declare the 
circumstance an evil at all. Most assuredly I would 
not express or describe the fact as an evil having an 
origin in the sufferers themselves, or as sin. 

Let us, however, waive this objection. Let it be 
supposed that the Bishop uses the word in a different 
and more comprehensive sense, and that by Sin he 
understands evil of all kind connected with or result- 
ing from actions — though I do not see how we can 
represent the properties even of inanimate bodies (of 
poisonous substances for instance) except as acts 
resulting from the constitution of such bodies. Or 
if this sense, though not unknown to the mystic 
divines, should be too comprehensive and remote, I 
will suppose the Bishop to comprise under the term 
Sin, the evil accompanying or consequent on human 
actions and purposes : — though here, too, I have a 
right to be informed, for what reason and on what 
grounds sin is thus limited to human agency ? And 
truly, I should be at no loss to assign the reason. 
But then this reason would instantly bring me back 
to my first definition ; and any other reason, than that 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 217 

the human agent is endowed with reason, and with a 
will which can place itself either in subjection or in 
opposition to his reason — in other words, that man 
is alone of all known animals a responsible creature — 
I neither know nor can imagine. 

Thus, then, the sense which Taylor — and with 
him the antagonists generally of this Article as 
propounded by the first Reformers — attaches to the 
words, Original Sin, needs only be carried on into 
its next consequence, and it will be found to imply 
the sense which I have given — namely, that sin is 
evil having an origin. But inasmuch as it is evil, 
in God it cannot originate : and yet in some Spirit 
(that is, in some supernatural power) it must. For 
in nature there is no origin. Sin therefore is spiritual 
evil : but the spiritual in man is the will. Now 
when we do not refer to any particular sins, but to 
that state and constitution of the will, which is the 
ground, condition, and common cause of all sins ; 
and when we would further express the truth, that 
this corrupt nature of the will must in some sense or 
other be considered as its own act, that the corruption 
must have been self-originated ; — in this case and for 
this purpose we may, with no less propriety than 
force, entitle this dire spiritual evil and source of 
all evil, which is absolutely such, Original Sin. I 
have said, the corrupt nature of the will. I might 
add, that the admission of a nature into a spiritual 
essence by its own act is a corruption. 

Such, I repeat, would be the inevitable conclusion, 
if Taylor's sense of the term were carried on into its 
immediate consequences. But the whole of his most 
eloquent Treatise makes it certain that Taylor did 
not carry it on : and consequently Original Sin, 
according to his conception, is a calamity, which being 
common to all men must be supposed to result from 



218 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

their common nature ; in other words, the universal 
calamity of human nature. 

Can we wonder, then, that a mind, a heart, like 
Taylor's, should reject, that he should strain his 
faculties to explain away the belief that this calamity, 
so dire in itself, should appear to the All-merciful 
God a rightful cause and motive for inflicting on the 
wretched sufferers a calamity infinitely more tremen- 
dous; — nay, that it should be incompatible with Divine 
Justice not to punish it by everlasting torment ? Or 
need we be surprised if he found nothing that could 
reconcile his mind to such a belief, in the circum- 
stance that the acts now consequent on this calamity, 
and either directly or indirectly effects of the same, 
were, five or six thousand years ago in the instance of 
a certain individual and his accomplice, anterior to 
the calamity, and the cause or occasion of the same ; 
— that what in all other men is disease, in these two 
persons was guilt ; — that what in us is hereditary, 
and consequently nature, in them was original, and 
consequently sin ? Lastly, might it not be presumed, 
that so enlightened, and at the same time so affec- 
tionate, a divine would even fervently disclaim and 
reject the pretended justifications of God grounded 
on flimsy analogies drawn from the imperfections of 
human ordinances and human justice-courts — some 
of very doubtful character even as human institutes, 
and all of them just only as far as they are necessary, 
and rendered necessaiy chiefly b\ the weakness and 
wickedness, the limited powers and corrupt passions, 
of mankind? The more confidently might this be 
presumed of so acute and practised a logician, as 
Taylor, in addition to his other extraordinary gifts, is 
known to have been, when it is demonstrable that the 
most current of these justifications rests on a palpable 
equivocation : namely, the gross misuse of the word 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 219 

Right.* An instance ^ill explain my meaning. In 
as far as, from the known frequency of dishonest or 

* It may conduce to the readier comprehension of this 
point if I say, that the equivoque consists in confounding 
the almost technical sense of the noun substantive, right, 
(a sense most often determined by the genitive case fol- 
lowing, as the right of property, the right of husbands to 
chastise their wives, and so forth) with the popular sense of 
the adjective, right : though this likewise has, if not a 
double sense, yet a double application ; — the first, when it is 
used to express the fitness of a mean to a relative end ; for 
example, "the right way to obtain the right distance at 
which a picture should be examined," and the like ; and the 
other, when it expresses a perfect conformity and eommen- 
surateness with the immutable idea of equity, or perfect 
rectitude. Hence the close connection between the words 
righteousness and godliness, that is, godlikeness. 

I should be tempted to subjoin a few words on a pre- 
dominating doctrine closely connected with the present 
argument — the Paleyan principle of general consequences ; 
but the inadequacy of this principle as a criterion of right 
and wrong, and above all its utter unfitness as a moral 
guide, have been elsewmere so fully stated (Friend, vol. ii. 
essay xi. 3rd edit.), that even in again referring to the 
subject I must shelter myself under Seneca's rule, that 
w T hat we cannot too frequently think of, we cannot too often 
be made to recollect. It is, however, of immediate import- 
ance to the point in discussion, that the reader should be 
made to see how altogether incompatible the principle of 
judging by general consequences is with the idea of an 
Eternal, Omnipresent, and Omniscient Being; — that he 
should be made aware of the absurdity of attributing any 
form of generalisation to the All-perfect Mind. To gene- 
ralise is a faculty and function of the human understanding, 
and from the imperfection and limitation of the under- 
standing are the use and the necessity of generalising 
derived. Generalisation is a substitute for intuition, for tho 
power of intuitive, that is, immediate knowledge. As 3 



220 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



mischievous persons, it may have heen fouud neces- 
sary, in so far is the law justifiable in giving land- 
owners the right of proceeding against a neighbour 
or fellow-citizen for even a slight trespass on that 
which the law has made their property : — nay, of 
proceeding in sundry instances criminally and even 
capitally But surely, either there is no religion in 
the world, and nothing obligatory in the precepts of 
the Gospel, or there are occasions in which it would 
be very wrong in the proprietor to exercise the right, 
which yet it may be highly expedient that he should 
possess. On this ground it is, that religion is the 
sustaining opposite of law. 

That Taylor, therefore, should have striven fervently 
against the Article so interpreted and so vindicated, 
is (for me at least) a subject neither of surprise nor of 
complaint. It is the doctrine which he substitutes ; 
it is the weakness and inconsistency betrayed in the 
defence of this substitute; it is the unfairness with 
which he blackens the established Article — for to give 
it, as it had been caricatured by a few Ultra-Calvin- 
ists during the fever of the (so called) Quinquarticular 
controversy, was in effect to blacken it — and then 
imposes another scheme, to which the same objections 
apply with even increased force, a scheme which 
seems to differ from the former only by adding fraud 
and mockery to injustice ; — these are the things 
that excite my wonder; it is of these that I complain. 

substitute, it is a gift of inestimable value to a finite intelli- 
gence, such as man in his present state is endowed with and 
capable of exercising; but yet a substitute only, and an 
imperfect one to boot. To attribute it to God is the 
grossest anthropomorphism : and grosser instances of anthro- 
pomorphism than are to be found in the controversial writings 
on Original Sin and Vicarious Satisfaction, the records of 
superstition do not supply. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 221 

For what does the Bishop's scheme amount to ? God, 
he tells us, required of Adam a perfect obedience, 
and made it possible by endowing him " with perfect 
rectitude and super-natural heights of grace " propor- 
tionate to the obedience which he required. As a 
consequence of his disobedience, Adam lost this 
rectitude, this perfect sanity and proportion aten ess of 
his intellectual, moral and corporeal state, powers 
and impulses ; and as the penalty of his crime, he 
was deprived of all supernatural aids and graces. 
The death, with whatever is comprised in the Scrip- 
tural sense of the word, death, began from that 
moment to work in him, and this consequence he 
conveyed to his offspring, and through them to all 
his posterity, that is, to all mankind. They were 
born diseased in mind, body and will. For what less 
than disease can we call a necessity of error and a 
predisposition to sin and sickness? Taylor, indeed, 
asserts, that though perfect obedience became incom- 
parably more difficult, it was not, however, absolutely 
impossible. Yet he himself admits that the contrary 
was universal ; that of the countless millions of 
Adam's posterity, not a single individual ever realised, 
or approached to the realisation of, this possibility ; 
and (if my memory * docs not deceive me) Taylor 

* I have, since this page was written, met with several 
passages in the Treatise on Repentance, the Holy Living 
and Dying, and the Worthy Communicant, in which the 
Bishop asserts without scruple the impossibility of total 
obedience ; and on the same grounds as I have given. 

[See the Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, c. I. s. 2. 
" — who — conclude that it is possible to keep the com- 
mandments, though as yet no man ever did, but He that 
did it for us all." xv. " But in the moral sense, that is, 
when we consider what man is, and what are his strengths, 
and how many his enemies, and how soon he falls, and that 



222 AIDS TO KEFLECTIOK 

himself has elsewhere exposed — and if he has not, 
yet common-sense will do it for him — the sophistry in 
asserting of a whole what may be true of the whole, 
but is in fact true only of each of its component parts. 
Any one may snap a horse-hair : therefore, any one 
may perform the same feat with the horse's tail. On 
a level floor (on the hardened sand for instance, of a 
sea-beach) I chalk two parallel straight lines, with a 
width of eight inches. It is possible for a man, 
with a bandage over his eyes, to keep within the path 
for two or three paces : therefore, it is possible for 
him to walk blindfold for two or three leagues 
without a single deviation ! And this possibility 
would suffice to acquit me of injustice, though I had 
placed man-traps within an inch of one line, and 
knew 7 that there were pit-falls and deep wells beside 
the other ! 

This assertion, therefore, without adverting to its 
discordance with, if not direct contradiction to, the 
tenth and thirteenth Articles of our Church, I shall 
not, I trust, be thought to rate below its true value, 
if I treat it as an infinitesimal possibility that may be 
safely dropped in the calculation : and so proceed with 
the argument. The consequence then of Adams 
crime was, by a natural necessity, inherited by persons 
who could not (the Bishop affirms) in any sense 
have been accomplices in the crime or partakers in 
the guilt : and yet consistently with the divine 
holiness, it was not possible that the same perfect 
obedience should not be required of them. Now 

he forgets when he should remember, and his faculties are 
asleep when they should be awake, and he is hindered by 
intervening accidents, and weakened and determined by 
superinduced qualities, habits and necessities, — the keeping 
of the commandments is morally impossible." xxxiv. — Ed.] 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 223 

what would the idea of equity, what would the law 
inscribed by the Creator on the heart of man, seem 
to dictate in this case? Surely, that the supple- 
mentary aids, the supernatural graces correspondent 
to a law above nature, should be increased in propor- 
tion to the diminished strength of the agents, and 
the increased resistance to be overcome by them. 
But no ! not only the consequence of Adam's act, 
but the penalty due to his crime, was perpetuated. 
His descendants were despoiled or left destitute of 
these aids and graces, while the obligation to perfect 
obedience was continued ; an obligation too, the 
non-fulfilment of which brought with it death and 
the unutterable woe that cleaves to an immortal soul 
for ever alienated from its Creator. 

Observe that all these results of Adam's fall enter 
into Bishop Taylor's scheme of Original Sin equally 
as into that of the first Reformers. In this respect 
the Bishop's doctrine is the same with that laid down 
in the Articles and Homilies of the English Church. 
The only difference that has hitherto appeared, con- 
sists in the aforesaid mathematical possibility of 
fulfilling the whole law, which in the Bishop's scheme 
is affirmed to remain still in human nature,* or (as it 
is elsewhere expressed) in the nature of the human 

* " There is a natural possibility and a moral : there are 
abilities in every man to do anything that is there com- 
manded, and he that can do well to-day, may do so to- 
morrow ; in the nature of things this is true : and since every 
sin is a breach of law, which a man might and ought to have 
kept, it is naturally certain, that whenever any man did 
break the commandment, he might have done otherwise. 
In man, therefore, speaking naturally and of the physical 
possibilities of things, there is by those assistances which are 
given in the Gospel, ability to keep the commandments 
evangelical. But in the moral sense," &c. vhi supra. — Ed. 



224 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

will.* But though it were possible to grant this 
existence of a power in all men, which in no man 
was ever exemplified, and where the non-actualisation 
of such power is, a priori, so certain, that the belief 
or imagination of the contrary in any individual is 
expressly given us by the Holy Spirit as a test, 
whereby it may be known that the truth is not in him 9 
as an infallible sign of imposture or &3lf-delusion ! — 

* Availing himself of the equivocal sense, and (I most 
readily admit) the injudicious use of the word " free " in the 
— even on this account — faulty phrase, " free only to sin," 
Taylor treats the notion of a power in the will of deter- 
mining itself to evil without an equal power of determining 
itself to good, as a i( foolery." I would this had been the 
only instance in his Deus Justificatus of that inconsiderate 
contempt so frequent in the polemic treatises of minor 
divines, who will have ideas of reason, spiritual truths that 
can only be spiritually discerned, translated for them into 
adequate conceptions of the understanding. The great 
articles of Corruption and Eedemption are propounded to 
us as spiritual mysteries; and every interpretation that 
pretends to explain them into comprehensible notions, does 
by its very success furnish presumptive proof of its failure. 
The acuteness and logical dexterity, with which Taylor has 
brought out the falsehood, or semblance of falsehood, in the 
Calvinistic scheme, are truly admirable. Had he next con- 
centred his thoughts in tranquil meditation, and asked 
himself: what then is the truth? — if a Will be at all, what 
must a Will be? — he might, I think, have setn that a nature 
in a will implies already a corruption of that will ; that a 
nature is as inconsistent with freedom as free choice with 
an incapacity of choosing aught but evil. And lastly, a free 
power in a nature to fulfil a law above nature ! — I, who 
love and honor this good and great man with all the 
reverence that can dwell " on this side idolatry/' dare not 
retort on this assertion the charge of foolery; but I find it 
a paradox as startling to my reason as any of the hard 
Bayings of the Dort divines were to his understanding. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 225 

though it were possible to grant this, which, con- 
sistently with Scripture and the principles of reasoning 
which we apply in all other cases, it is not possible 
to grant ; — and though it were possible likewise to 
overlook the glaring sophistry of concluding in relation 
to a series of indeterminate length, that whoever can 
do any one, can therefore do all ; a conclusion, the 
futility of which must force itself on the common 
sense of every man who understands the proposition ; 
still the question will arise — Why, and on what 
principle of equity, were the unoffending sentenced to 
be born with so fearful a disproportion of their powers 
to their duties ? Why were they subjected to a law, 
the fulfilment of which was all but impossible, yet 
the penalty on the failure tremendous ? Admit that 
for those who had never enjoyed a happier lot, it was 
no punishment to be made to inhabit a ground which 
the Creator had cursed, and to have been born with 
a body prone to sickness, and a soul surrounded with 
temptation, and having the worst temptation within 
itself in its own temptibility ; — to have the duties of 
a Spirit with the wants and appetites of an Animal ! 
Yet on such imperfect creatures, with means so scanty 
and impediments so numerous, to impose the same 
task-work that had been required of a creature with 
a pure and entire nature, and provided with super- 
natural aids — if this be not to inflict a penalty ; yet 
to he placed under a law, the difficulty of obeying 
which is infinite, and to have momently to struggle 
with this difficulty, and to live momently in hazard 
of these consequences — if this be no punishment ; — 
words have no correspondence with thoughts, and 
thoughts are but shadows of each other, shadows 
that own no substance for their antitype. 

Of such an outrage on common sense Taylor was 
Incapable. He himself calls it a penalty; he admits 

Q 



2i0 .AIDS TO REFLFCTION, 

that in effect it is a punishment : nor does he seek 
to suppress the question that so naturally arises out 
of this admission .;. — on what principle of equity were 
the innocent offspring of Adam punished at all ? He. 
meets it, and puts in an answer. He states the pro- 
blem, and gives his solution — namely, that " God on 
Adam's account was so exasperated with mankind, 
that being angry he would still continue the punish- 
ment ! V — "The case" (sa} r s the Bishop) "is this: 
Jonathan and Michal were Saul's children. It came 
to pass, that seven of Saul's issue were to be hanged : 
all equally innocent, equally culpable." [Before I 
quote further, I feel myself called on to remind the 
reader, that these last two words were added by 
Taylor, without the least grounds in Scripture, ac- 
cording to which (2 Sam. xxi.) no crime was laid to 
their charge, no blame imputed to them. Without 
any pretence of culpable conduct on their part, they 
were arraigned as children of Saul, and sacrificed to 
a point of state-expedience. In recommencing the 
quotation, therefore, the reader ought to let the sen- 
tence conclude with the w r ords — ] " all equally inno- 
cent. David took the five sons of Michal, for she 
had left him unhandsomely. Jonathan was his friend: 
and therefore he spared his son, Mephibosheth. Now 
here it was indifferent as to the guilt of the persons 
(bear in mind, Reader, that no guilt ivas attached to 
any of them ! ) whether David should take the sons 
of Michal, or Jonathan's ; but it is likely that as upon 
the kindness that David had to Jonathan, he spared 
his son ; so upon the just provocation of Michal, ho 
made that evil fall upon them, which, it may be, 
they should not have suffered, if their mother had 
been kind. Adam was to God, as Michal to David."* 

* Vol. ix. pp. 5, 6. Heber's edit.— Ed. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 227 

This answer, this solution, proceeding too from a 
divine so pre-eminently gifted, and occurring (with 
other passages not less startling) in a vehement re- 
futation of the received doctrine, on the express 
ground of its opposition to the clearest conceptions 
and best feelings of mankind — this it is that surprises 
me. It is of this that I complain. The Almighty 
Father exasperated with those, whom the Bishop has 
himself in the same Treatise described as " innocent 
and most unfortunate " — the two things best fitted to 
conciliate love and pity ! Or though they did not 
remain innocent, yet those whose abandonment to a 
mere nature, while they were left amenable to a law 
above nature, he affirms to be the irresistible cause, 
that they one and all did sin ! And this decree illus- 
trated and justified by its analogy to one of the worst 
actions of an imperfect mortal ! From such of my 
Readers as will give a thoughtful perusal to these 
words of Taylor, I dare anticipate a concurrence with 
the judgment which I here transcribe from the blank 
space at the end of the Deus Justl/icatus in my own 
copy : and winch, though twenty years have elapsed 
since it was written, I have never seen reason to 
recant or modify. " This most eloquent Treatise 
may be compared to a statue of Janus, with the one 
face, which we must suppose fronting the Calvinistic 
tenet, entire and fresh, as from the master's hand ; 
beaming with life and force, witty scorn on the lip, 
and a brow at once bright and weighty with satisfying 
reason : — the other, looking toward the ' something 
to be put in its place,' maimed, featureless, and 
weather-bitten into an almost visionary confusion and 
indistinctness." * 

With these expositions I hasten to contrast the 

* See Notes on English Divines, voL L pp. 275 — 27S. 

Q2 



823 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



Scriptural article respecting original Sin, or the cor- 
rupt and sinful nature of the human Will, and the 
belief which alone is required of us as Christians. 
And here the first thing to be considered, and which 
will at once remove a world of error, is, that this is no 
tenet first introduced or imposed by Christianity, and, 
which, should a man see reason to disclaim the authority 
of the Gospel, would no longer have any claim on his 
attention. It is no perplexity that a man may get 
rid of by ceasing to be a Christian, and which has no 
existence for a philosophic Deist. It is a fact affirmed, 
indeed, in the Christian Scriptures alone with the 
force and frequency proportioned to its consummate 
importance; but a fact acknowledged in every religion 
that retains the least glimmering of the patriarchal 
faith in a God infinite, yet personal : — a fact assumed 
or implied as the basis of every religion, of which 
any relics remain of earlier date than the last and 
total apostasy of the Pagan world, when the faith in 
the great I Am, the Creator, w r as extinguished in the 
sensual Polytheism, which is inevitably the final result 
of Pantheism, or the worship of Nature ; and the only 
form under which the Pantheistic scheme — that, ac- 
cording to which the World is God, and the material 
universe itself the one only absolute Being — can exist 
for a people, or become the popular creed. Thus in 
the most ancient books of ihe Brahmins, the deep 
sense of this fact, and the doctrines grounded on 
obscure traditions of the promised remedy, are seen 
struggling, and now gleaming, now flashing, through 
the mist of Pantheism, and producing the incon- 
gruities and gross contradictions of the Brahmin 
Mythology: while in the rival sect — in that most 
strange phenomenon, the religious Atheism of the 
Buddhists, with whom God is only universal matter 
considered abstractedly from all particular forms — 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 229 

the fact is placed among the delusions natural to man, 
which together with other superstitions grounded on 
a supposed essential difference between right and 
wrong, the sage is to decompose and precipitate from 
the menstruum of his more refined apprehensions ! 
Thus in denying the fact, they virtually acknow- 
ledge it. 

From the remote East turn to the mythology of 
the Lesser Asia, to the descendants of Javan, who 
dwelt in the tents of Shem, and possessed the isles. 
Here, again, and in the usual form of an historic 
solution, we find the same fact, and as characteristic 
of the human race, stated in that earliest and most 
venerable my thus t or symbolic parable, of Prometheus 
— that truly wonderful fable, in which the characters 
of the rebellious Spirit and of the Divine Friend of 
mankind (Oeos <\)ikav6p<x>~os) are united in the same 
person;* thus in the most striking manner noting 
the forced amalgamation of the Patriarchal tradition 
with the incongruous scheme of Pantheism. This 
and the connected tale of Io, which is but the sequel 
of the Prometheus, stand alone in the Greek Mytho- 
logy, in which elsewhere both gods and men are 
mere powers and products of nature. And most 
noticeable it is, that soon after the promulgation and 
spread of the Gospel had awakened the moral sense, 
and had opened the eyes even of its wiser enemies to 
the necessity of providing some solution of this great 
problem of the moral world, the beautiful parable of 
Cupid and Psyche was brought forward as a rival Fall 
of Man : and the fact of a moral corruption conna- 
tural with the human race was again recognised. In 
the assertion of Original Sin the Greek Mythology 
rose and set. 

* See Lectures on Sliakspeare, vol. ii. p. 182. — £'<£, 



230 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

But not only was the fact acknowledged of a law 
in the nature of man resisting the law of God ; (and 
whatever is placed in active and direct oppugnancy 
to the good is, ipso facto, positive evil ;) it was like- 
wise an acknowledged mystery, and one which hy the 
nature of the subject must ever remain such — a 
problem, of which any other solution than the state- 
ment of the fact itself, was demonstrably impossible. 
That it is so, the least reflection will suffice to con- 
vince every man, who has previously satisfied himself 
that he is a responsible being. It follows necessarily 
from the postulate of a responsible will. Refuse to 
grant this, and I have not a word to say. Concede 
this, and you concede all. For this is the essential 
attribute of a will, and contained in the very idea, 
that whatever determines the will acquires this power 
from a previous determination of the will itself. The 
will is ultimately self determined, or it is no longer 
a will under the law of perfect freedom, but a nature 
under the mechanism of cause and effect. And if by 
an act, to which it had determined itself, it has sub- 
jected itself to the determination of nature (in the 
language of St. Paul, to the law of the flesh), it 
receives a nature into itself, and so far it becomes a 
nature : and this is a corruption of the will and a 
corrupt nature. It is also a fall of man, inasmuch 
as his will is the condition of his personality; the 
ground and condition of the attribute which consti- 
tutes him man. And the ground-work of personal 
being is a capacity of acknowledging the moral law 
(the law of the spirit, the law of freedom, the Divine 
Will) as that which should, of itself, suffice to de- 
termine the will to a free obedience of the law, tho 
law working therein by its own exceeding lawfulness.* 

* If the law worked on the will, it would be the working 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 231 

This, and this alone, is positive good ; good in itself, 
and independent of all relations. Whatever resists, 
and, as a positive force, opposes this in the will, 13 
therefore evil. But an evil in the will is an evil will ; 
and as all moral evil (that is, all evil that is evil 
without reference to its contingent physical conse 
quences) is of the will, this evil will must have its 
source in the will. And thus we might go back from 
act to act, from evil to evil, ad infinitum, without 
advancing a step. 

We call an individual a bad man, not because an 
action of his is contrary to the law, but because it 
has led us to conclude from it some principle opposed 
to the law, some private maxim or by-law in his will 
contrary to the universal law of right reason in 
the conscience, as the ground of the action. But 
this evil principle again must be grounded in some 
other principle which has been made determinant of 
his will by the will's own self-determination. For 
if not, it must have its ground in some necessity of 
nature, in some instinct or propensity imposed, not 
acquired, another's work not his own. Consequently 
neither act nor principle could be imputed ; and 
relatively to the agent, not original, not sin. 

Now let the grounds on which the fact of an evii 
inherent in the will is affirmable in the instance of 
any one man, be supposed equally applicable in every 
instance, and concerning all men : so that the fact 
is asserted of the individual, not because he has 
committed this or that crime, or because he has shown 
himself to be this or that man, but simply because he 
is a man. Let the evil be supposed such as to imply 
the impossibility of an individual's referring to any 
particular time at which it might be conceived to 

of an extrinsic and alien force, and, as St. Paul profound! j 
argues, would prove the will sinful. 



£32 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

have commenced, or to any period of his existence at 
which it was not existing. Let it be supposed, in 
short, that the subject stands in no relation whatever 
to time, Can neither be called in time nor out of time; 
but that all relations of time are as alien and he- 
terogeneous in this question, as the relations and 
attributes of space (north or south, round or square, 
thick or thin) are to our affections and moral feelings. 
Let the Reader suppose this, and he will have before 
him the precise import of the Scriptural doctrine of 
Original Sin ; or rather of the fact acknowledged in 
all ages, and recognised, but not originating, in the 
Christian Scriptures. 

In addition to this it will be w T ell to remind the 
inquirer, that the stedfast conviction of the existence, 
personality, and moral attributes of God, is presup- 
posed in the acceptance of the Gospel, or required as 
its indispensable preliminary. It is taken for granted 
as a point which the hearer had already decided for 
himself, a point finally settled and put at rest : not 
by the removal of all difficulties, or by any such 
increase of insight as enabled him to meet every 
objection of the Epicurean or the Sceptic with a full 
and precise answer ; but because he had convinced 
himself that it was folly as well as presumption in so 
imperfect a creature to expect it ; and because these 
difficulties and doubts disappeared at the beam, when 
tried against the weight and convictive power of the 
reasons in the other scale. It is, therefore, most 
unfair to attack Christianity, or any article which 
the Church has declared a Christian doctrine, by 
arguments, w T hich, if valid, are valid against all 
religion. Is there a disputant who scorns a mere 
postulate, as the basis of any argument in support 
of the faith; who is too high-minded to beg his 
ground and will take it by a strong hand ? I et 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 233 

him fight it out with the Atheists, or the Mani- 
cheans ; hut not stoop to pick up their arrows, and 
then run away to discharge them at Christianity or 
the Church ! 

The only true way is to state the doctrine, believed 
as well by Saul of Tarsus, yet breathing out threaten- 
tngs and slaughter against the Church of Christ, as 
by Paul the Apostle, fully preaching the Gospel of 
Christ. A moral evil is an evil that has its origin in 
a will. An evil common to all must have a ground 
common to all. But the actual existence of moral 
evil we are bound in conscience to admit ; and that 
there is an evil common to all is a fact ; and this evil 
must therefore have a common ground. Now this 
evil ground cannot originate in the Divine Will : it 
must therefore be referred to the will of man. And 
this evil ground w T e call original sin. It is a mys- 
tery, that is, a fact, which we see, but cannot explain; 
and the doctrine a truth which we apprehend, but 
can neither comprehend nor communicate. And such 
by the quality of the subject (namely, a responsible 
will) it must be, if it be truth at all. 

A sick man, whose complaint was as obscure as his 
Bufferings were severe and notorious, w T as thus ad- 
dressed by a humane stranger: " My poor Friend ! 
I find you dangerously ill, and on this account only, 
and having certain information of your being so, and 
that you have not wherewithal to pay for a physician, 
I have come to you. Respecting your disease, indeed, 
I can tell you nothing that you are capable of un- 
derstanding, more than you know already, or can 
only be taught by reflection on your own experience. 
But I have rendered the disease no longer irreme 
diable. I have brought the remedy with me : and I 
now offer you the means of immediate relief, w r ith 
the assurance of gradual convalescence, and a final 



234 ATDS TO REFLECTION. 

perfect cure : nothing more being required on your 
part, but your best endeavours to follow the prescrip- 
tions I shall leave with you. It is, indeed, too pro- 
bable, from the nature of your disease, that you will 
occasionally neglect or transgress them. But even 
this has been calculated on in the plan of your cure, 
and the remedies provided, if only you are sincere 
and in right earnest with yourself, and have your 
heart in the work. Ask me not how such a disease 
can be conceived possible. Enough for the present 
that you know it to be real : and I come to cure the 
disease, not to explain it." 

Now, what if the patient or some of his neighbours 
should charge this good Samaritan with having given 
rise to the mischievous notion of an inexplicable dis- 
ease, involving the honour of the king of the 
country ; — should inveigh against him as the author 
and first introducer of the notion, though of the 
numerous medical works composed ages before his 
arrival, and by physicians of the most venerable 
authority, it was scarcely possible to open a single 
volume without finding some description of the 
disease, or some lamentation of its malignant and 
epidemic character; — and, lastly, what if certain 
pretended friends of this good Samaritan, in their 
zeal to vindicate him against this absurd charge, 
should assert that he was a perfect stranger to this 
disease, and boldly deny that he had ever said or 
done any thing connected w 7 ith it, or that implied ita 
existence ? 

In this apologue or imaginary case, Reader ! you 
have the true bearings of Christianity on the fact 
and doctrine of Original Sin. The doctrine (that is, 
the confession of a known fact) Christianity has only 
in common with every religion, and with every philo- 
sophy, in which the reality of a responsible will, and 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. '235 

the essential difference between good and evil, have 
been recognised. Peculiar to the Christian religion 
are the remedy and (for all purposes but those of a 
merely speculative curiosity) the solution. By the 
annunciation of the remedy it affords all the solution 
which our moral interests require ; and even in that 
which remains, and must remain, unfathomable, the 
Christian finds a new motive to walk humbly with 
the Lord his God. 

Should a professed believer ask you, whether that, 
which is the ground of responsible action in your will 
could in any way be responsibly present in the will 
of Adam, — answer him in these words : " You, Sir ! 
can no more demonstrate the negative, than I can 
conceive the affirmative. The corruption of my will 
may very warrantably be spoken of as a consequence 
of Adam's fall, even as my birth of Adam's existence ; 
as a consequence, a link in the historic chain of 
instances, whereof Adam is the first. But that it is 
on account of Adam ; or that this evil principle was, 
a priori, inserted or infused into my will by the will 
of another — which is indeed a contradiction in terms, 
my will in such case being no will — -this is nowhere 
asserted in Scripture explicitly or by implication." 
It belongs to the very essence of the doctrine, that 
in respect of original sin every man is the adequate 
representative of all men. What wonder, then, that 
where no inward ground of preference existed, the 
choice should be determined by outward relations, 
and that the first in time should be taken as the 
diagram ? Even in the book of Genesis the word 
Adam; is distinguished from a proper name by an 
article before it. It is the Adam, so as to express 
the genus, not the individual — or rather, perhaps, 
I should say, as well as the individual. But that 
the word with its equivalent, the old man, is used 



236 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



symbolically and universally by St. Paul, (I Cor. xv, 
22, 45. Eph. iv. 22. Col. iii. 9. Rom. vi. 6,) is too 
evident to need any proof. 

I conclude with this remark. The doctrine of 
Original Sin concerns all men. But it concerns 
Christians in particular no otherwise than by its 
connexion with the doctrine of Redemption ; and with 
the divinity and divine humanity of the Redeemer, as 
a corollary or necessary inference from both mysteries. 
Beware of arguments against Christianity, which 
cannot stop there, and consequently ought not to 
have commenced there. Something I might have 
added to the clearness of the preceding views, if the 
limits of the Work had permitted me to clear away 
the several delusive and fanciful assertions respecting 
the state * of our first parents, their wisdom, science, 
and angelic faculties, assertions without the slightest 
ground in Scripture: — or, if consistently with the 
wants and preparatory studies of those, for whose use 
this Volume was especially intended, I could have 
entered into the momentous subject of a spiritual 
fall or apostasy antecedent to the formation of man — 
a belief the Scriptural grounds of which are few and 
of diverse interpretation, but which has been almost 
universal in the Christian Church. Enough however 
has been given, I trust, for the Reader to see and 
(as far as the subject is capable of being understood) 
to understand this long controverted article, in the 
sense in which alone it is binding on his faith. Sup- 
posing him therefore to know the meaning of Original 



* For a specimen of these Rabbinical dotages, I refer, 
not to the writings of mystics and enthusiasts, but to the 
shrewd and witty Dr. South, one of whose most elaborate 
sermons stands prominent among the many splendid extra- 
vaganzas on this subject. (See Sermons, II. Gen. i. 27. — Ed.) 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 237 

Sin, and to have decided for himself on the fact of its 
actual existence, as the antecedent ground and occasion 
of Christianity, we roay now proceed to Christianity 
itself, as the edifice raised on this ground, that is, to 
the great constituent article of the faith in Christ, 
as the remedy of the disease — the doctrine of 
Redemption. 

But before I proceed to this great doctrine, let me 
briefly remind the young and friendly pupil, to whom 
I would still be supposed to address myself, that in 
the following Aphorisms the word science is used in 
its strict and narrowest sense. By a science I here 
mean any chain of truths which are either absolutely 
certain, or necessarily true for the human mind, from 
the laws and constitution of the mind itself. In 
neither case is our conviction derived, or capable of 
receiving any addition, from outward experience, or 
empirical data — that is, matters of fact given to us 
through the medium of the senses — though these 
data may have been the occasion, or may even be 
an indispensable condition, of our reflecting on the 
former, and thereby becoming conscious of the same. 
On the other hand, a connected series of conclusions 
grounded on empirical data, in contra-distinction from 
science, I beg leave (no better term occurring) in this 
place and for this purpose to denominate a scheme. 

APHOKISM XI. 

In whatever age and country it is the prevailing 
raind and character of the nation to regard the 
present life as subordinate to a life to come, and to 
mark the present state, the world of their senses, by 
signs, instruments, and mementos of its connexion 
with a future state and a spiritual world ; — where 
the mysteries of faith are brought within the hold of 



238 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. . 



the people at large, not by being explained away in 
the vain hope of accommodating them to the average 
of their understanding, but by being made the 
objects of love by their combination with events and 
epochs of history, with national traditions, with the 
monuments and dedications of ancestral faith and 
zeal, with memorial and symbolical observances, with 
the realising influences of social devotion, and above 
all, by early and habitual association with acts of the 
will, — there Religion is. There, however obscured 
by the hay and straw of human will-work, the founda- 
tion is safe. In that country and under the pre- 
dominance of such maxims, the National Church is 
no mere State-institute. It is the state itself in its 
intensest federal union ; yet at the same moment the 
guardian and representative of all personal individu- 
ality. For the Church is the shrine of morality, 
and in morality alone the citizen asserts and reclaims 
his personal independence, his integrity. Oar out- 
ward acts are efficient, and most often possible, only 
by coalition. As an efficient power, the agent is but 
a fraction of unity ; he becomes an integer only in 
the recognition and performance of the moral law* 
Nevertheless it is most true (and a truth. which cannot 
with safety be overlooked) that morality, as morality, 
has no existence for a people. It is either absorbed 
and lost in the quicksands of prudential calculus, or 
it is taken up and transfigured into the duties and 
mysteries of religion. And no wonder : sinco 
morality (including the personal being, the I am, as 
its subject) is itself a mystery, and the ground and 
mppositum of all other mysteries, relatively to man. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION $39 

.APHORISM XII. 

PALEY NOT A MORALIST, 

Schemes of conduct, grounded on calculations of 
self-interest, or on the average consequences of 
actions, supposed to Le general, form a branch 
of Political Economy, to which let all due honour be 
given. Their utility is not here questioned. But 
however estimable within their own sphere such 
schemes, or any one of them in particular, may be, 
they do not belong to moral science, to which, both 
in kind and purpose, they are in all cases foreign, 
and when substituted, for it, hostile. Ethics, or the 
science of Morality, does indeed in no wise exclude 
the consideration of action ; but it contemplates the 
same in its originating spiritual source, without 
reference to space, or time, or sensible existence. 
Whatever springs out of the perfect law of freedom, 
which exists only by its unity with the will of God, 
its inherence in the Word of God, and its communion 
with the Spirit of God — that (according to the 
principles of moral science) is good — it is light and 
righteousness and very truth. Whatever seeks t<r 
separate itself from the divine principle, and pro- 
ceeds from a false centre in the agent's particular 
will, is evil — a work of darkness and contradiction 
It is sin and essential falsehood. Not the outward 
deed, constructive, destructive, or neutral, — not the 
deed as a possible object of the senses, — is the object 
of ethical science. For this is no compost, collec- 
torium or inventory of single duties ; nor does it 
seek in the multitudinous sea, in the predetermined 
wave, and tides and currents of nature, that freedom 
which is exclusively an attribute of spirit. Like 
all other pure sciences, whatever it enunciates, and 



240 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

whatever it concludes, it enunciates and concludes 
absolutely. Strictness is its essential character; 
and its first proposition is, Whosoever shall keep th(> 
whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of 
all. For as the will or spirit, the source and substance 
of moral good, is one and all in every part ; so must 
it be the totality, the whole articulated series of 
jingle acts, taken as unity, that can alone, in the 
severity of science, be recognised as the proper 
counterpart and adequate representative of a good 
will. Is it in this or that limb, or not rather in the 
whole body, the entire organismus, that the law of 
Life reflects itself? Much less, then, can the law 
of the Spirit work in fragments. 



APHORISM XIII. 

Wherever there exists a permanent * learned class, 
having authority, and possessing the respect and con- 
fidence of the country ; and wherever the science of 
ethics is acknowledged and taught in this class, as a 
regular part of a learned education, to its future 

* A learned order must be supposed to consist of three 
classes. First, those who are employed in adding to the 
existing sum of power and knowledge. Second, and most 
numerous class, those whose office it is to diffuse through the 
community at large the practical results of science, and that 
kind and degree of knowledge and cultivation, which for 
all is requisite or clearly useful. Third, the formers and 
instructors of the second — in schools, halls, and universities, 
or through the medium of the press. The second class 
includes not only the Parochial Clergy, and all others duly 
ordained to the ministerial office ; but likewise all the 
members of the legal and medical professions, who have 
received a learned education under accredited and responsible 
teachers. fSee the Church and State, p. 45, &c. 3rd edit. — Ed.) 



OX SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 241 

members generally, but as the special study and 
indispensable ground- work of such as are intended 
for holy orders ; — there the article of Original Sin 
will be an axiom of faith in all classes. Among 
the learned an undisputed truth, and with the people 
a fact, which no man imagines it possible to deny : 
and the doctrine, thus inwoven in the faith of all, 
and coeval with the consciousness of each, will, for 
each and all, possess a reality, subjective indeed, yet 
virtually equivalent to that w r hich we intuitively give 
to the objects of our senses. 

With the learned this will be the case, because the 
article is the first — I had almost said spontaneous — 
product of the application of moral science to history, 
of which it is the interpreter. A mystery in its own 
right, and by the necessity and essential character of 
its subject — (for the will, like the life, in every act 
and product pre-supposes to itself a past always 
present, a present that evermore resolves itself into 
a past) — the doctrine of Original Sin gives to all the 
other mysteries of religion a common basis, a connec- 
tion of dependency, an intelligibility of relation, and 
a total harmony, which supersede extrinsic proof. 
There is here that same proof from unity of purpose, 
that same evidence of symmetry, which in the con- 
templation of a human skeleton flashed conviction 
on the mind of Galen, and kindled meditation into 
a hymn of praise. 

Meanwhile the people, not goaded into doubt by 
the lessons and examples of their teachers and 
superiors; not drawn away from the fixed stars of 
heaven — the form and magnitude of which are the 
same for the naked eye of the shepherd as for the 
telescope of the sage— from the immediate truths, 
I mean of Reason and Conscience, to an exercise to 
which they have not been trained, — of a faculty 

i; 



242 AIDS TO INFLECTION. 

which has been imperfectly developed, — on a subject 
not within the sphere of the faculty, nor in any way 
amenable to its judgment; — the people will need no 
arguments to receive a doctrine confirmed by their 
own experience from within and from without, and 
intimately blended with the most venerable traditions 
common to all races, and the traces of which linger 
in the latest twilight of civilisation. 

Among the revulsions consequent on the brute 
bewilderments of a Godless revolution, a great and 
active zeal for the interests of religion may be one. 
I dare not trust it, till I have seen what it is that 
gives religion this interest, till I am satisfied that it 
is not the interests of this world; necessary and 
laudable interests, perhaps, but which may, I dare 
believe, be secured as effectually and more suitably 
by the prudence of this world, and by this worlds 
powers and motives. At all events, I find nothing 
in the fashion of the day to deter me from adding, 
that the reverse of the preceding — that where religion 
is valued and patronised as a supplement of Law, or 
an aid extraordinary of Police ; where moral science 
is exploded as the mystic jargon of dark ages ; where 
a lax system of consequences, by which every iniquity 
on earth may be (and how many have been!) denounced 
and defended with equal plausibility, is publicly and 
authoritatively taught as Moral Philosophy ; where 
the mysteries of religion, and truths supersensual, 
are either cut and squared for the comprehension of 
the Understanding, the faculty judging according to 
sense, or desperately torn asunder from the Reason, 
nay fanatically opposed to it ; lastly where private * 

* The Author of the " Statesman's Manual " must be the 
most inconsistent of men, if he can be justly suspected of 
a leaning to the Romish Church ; or if it be necessary for 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 243 

interpretation is every thing, and the Church nothing 
— there the mystery of Original Sin will be either 
rejected, or evaded, or perverted into the monstrous 
iction of hereditary sin, — guilt inherited; in the 
mystery of Eedemption metaphors will be obtruded 
for the reality ; and in the mysterious appurtenants* 
and symbols of Redemption (regeneration, grace, the 
Eucharist, and spiritual communion) the realities will 
be evaporated into metaphors. 

liini to repeat his fervent Amen to the wish and prayer of our 
late good old king, that " every adult in the British Empire 
should be able to read his Bible, and have a Bible to read ! " 
Nevertheless, it may not be superfluous to declare, that in 
thus protesting against the license of private interpretation, 
I do not mean to condemn the exercise or deny the right of 
individual judgment. I condemn only the pretended right 
of every individual, competent and incompetent, to interpret 
Scripture in a sense of his own, in opposition to the judgment 
of the Church, without knowledge of the originals, or of the 
languages, the history, customs, opinions, and controversies 
of the age and country in which they were written ; and 
where the interpreter judges in ignorance or in contempt of 
uninterrupted tradition, the unanimous consent of Fathers 
and Councils, and the universal faith of the Church in all 
ages. It is not the attempt to form a judgment, which is 
here called in question ; but the grounds, or rather the 
no-grounds on which the judgment is formed and relied on. 
My fixed principle is : that a Christianity without a Church 
exercising spiritual authority is vanity and dissolution. And 
my belief is, that when Popery is rushing in on us like an 
inundation, the nation will find it to be so. I say Popery : 
for this too I hold for a delusion, that Romanism or Roman 
Catholicism is separable from Popery. Almost as readily 
could I suppose a circle without a centre. 



a 2 



244 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM XIV. 



As in great maps or pictures you will see the 
border decorated with meadows, fountains, flowers, 
and the like, represented in it, but in the middle you 
have the main design : so among the works of God is 
it with the fore-ordained redemption of man. All his 
other works in the world, all the beauty of the crea- 
tures, the succession of ages, and the things that 
come to pass in them, are but as the border to this as 
the mainpiece. But as a foolish unskilful beholder, 
not discerning the excellency of the principal piece 
in such maps or pictures, gazes only on the fair 
border, and goes no farther — thus do the greatest 
part of us as to this great work of God, the redemp- 
tion of our personal being, and the re-union of the 
human with the divine, by and through the divine 
humanity of the Incarnate Word. 



APHORISM XV. 

LUTIIER. 

It is a hard matter, yea, an impossible thing for 
thy human strength, whosoever thou art, (without 
God's assistance,) at such a time when Moses setteth 
on thee with the Law (see Aphorism XII.), — when 
the holy Law written in thy heart accuseth and con- 
demneth thee, forcing thee to a comparison of thy 
heart therewith, and convicting thee of the incom- 
patibleness of thy will and nature with Heaven and 
holiness and an immediate God — that then thou 
shouldst be able to be of such a mind as if no law nor 
sin had ever been ! I say it is in a manner impos- 
sible that a human creature, when he feeleth himself 
assaulted with trials and temptations, and the con- 



ON SPIRITUAL HELIGION. 245 

science hath to do with God, and the tempted man 
knoweth that the root of temptation is within him, 
should obtain such mastery over his thoughts as then 
to think no otherwise than that from everlasting 
nothing hath been but only and alone Christ, alto- 
gether grace and deliverance ! 



In irrational agents, namely, the brute animals, 
the will is hidden or absorbed in the law. The law 
is their nature. In the original purity of a rational 
agent the uncorrupted will is identical with the law. 
Nay, inasmuch as a will perfectly identical with the 
law is one with the Divine Will, we may say, that in 
the unfallen rational agent the will constitutes the 
law.* But it is evident that the holy and spi- 
ritual power and light, which by a prolepsis or antici- 
pation we have named law, is a grace, an inward 
perfection, and without the commanding, binding, 
and menacing character which belongs to a law, 
acting as a master or sovereign distinct from, and 
existing, as it were, externally for, the agent who is 

* In fewer words thus : For the brute animals, their 
nature is their law: — for what other third law can be 
imagined, in addition to the law of nature, and the law 
of reason ] Therefore : in irrational agents the law consti- 
tutes the will. In moral and rational agents the will con- 
stitutes, or ought to constitute, the law : I speak of moral 
agents, unfallen. For the personal will comprehends the 
idea, as a reason, and it gives causative force to the idea, as 
a practical reason. But idea with the power of realising 
the same is a law ; or say : — the spirit comprehends the 
moral idea, by virtue of its rationality, and it gives to the 
idea causative power, as a will. In every sense, therefore, it 
constitutes the law, supplying both the elements of which 
it consists, namely, the idea, and the realising power. 



216 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

bound to obey it. Now this is St. Paul's sense of the 
word, and on this he grounds his whole reasoning. 
And hence too arises the obscurity and apparent 
paradoxy of several texts. That the law is a law for 
you ; that it acts on the will not in it ; that it exer- 
cises an agency from without, by fear and coercion ; 
proves the corruption of your will, and presupposes it. 
Sin in this sense came by the law : for it has its 
essence, as sin, in that counter-position of the holy 
principle to the will, which occasions this principle to 
be a law. Exactly (as in all other points) consonant 
with the Pauline doctrine is the assertion of John, 
when — speaking of the re-adoption of the redeemed 
to be sons of God, and the consequent resumption 
(I had almost said re-absorption) of the law into the 
will (vojjlov rikeiov rbv r?/? ZXevOepias, James i. 25,) 
— he says, For the law ivas given by Moses, but grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ* That by the law 
St. Paul meant only the ceremonial law, is a notion 
that could originate only in utter inattention to the 
whole strain and bent of the Apostle's argument. 

APHORISM XYI. 

LEIGHTON AND COLERIDGE. 

Christ's death was both voluntary and violent. 
There was external violence : and that was the accom- 
paniment, or at most the occasion, of his death. But 
there was internal willingness, the spiritual will, the 
will of the Spirit, and this was the proper cause. By 
this Spirit he was restored from death : neither 
indeed was it possible for him to be holden of it. 
Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by tin 
Spirit, says St. Peter. But he is likewise declared 

* Join I 17— Ed. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 247 

elsewhere to have died by that same Spirit, which 
here, in opposition to the violence, is said to quicken 
him. Thus Heb. ix. 14. Through the eternal Spirit 
he offered himself. And even from Peter's words, 
and without the epithet eternal, to aid the interpreta- 
tion, it is evident that the Spirit, here opposed to the 
flesh by body or animal life, is of a higher nature ana 
power than the individual soul, which cannot of itself 
return to reinhabit or quicken the body. 

If these points were niceties, and an over refining 
in doctrine, is it to be believed that the Apostles, 
John, Peter and Paul, with the author of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews, would have laid so great a stress on 
them ? But the true life of Christians is to eye 
Christ in every step of his life — not only as their 
rule but as their strength : looking to him as their 
pattern both in doing and in suffering, and drawing 
power from him for going through both : being with- 
out him able for nothing. Take comfort, then, thou 
that believest ! It is he that lifts up the soul from the 
gates of death : and he hath said, I mil raise thee up 
at the last dag. Thou that believest in him, believe 
him and take comfort. Yea, when thou art most 
sunk in thy sad apprehensions, and he far off to thy 
thinking, then is he nearest to raise and comfort 
thee : as sometimes it grows darkest immediately 
before day. 

APHORISM XVII. 

LEIGHTON AXD COLERIDGE. 

Would, any of you be cured of that common disease 
the fear of death ? Yet this is not the right name of 
the disease, as a mere reference to our armies and 
navies is sufficient to prove : nor can the fear of 
death, either as loss of life or pain of dying, be justly 



S48 AIDS T0 REFLECTION. 

held a common disease. But would you be cured of 
the fear and fearful questionings connected with the 
approach of death ? Look this way, and you shall 
find more than you seek. Christ, the Word that was 
from the beginning, and was made flesh and dwelt 
among men, died. And he, who dying conquered 
death in his own person, conquered sin and death, 
which is the wages of sin, for thee. And of this thou 
mayest be assured, if only thou believe in him, and 
love him. I need not add, keep his commandments : 
since where faith and love are, obedience in its three- 
fold character, as effect, reward, and criterion, follows 
by that moral necessity which is the highest form of 
freedom. The grave is thy bed of rest, and no longer 
the cold bed: for thy Saviour has warmed it, and 
made it fragrant. 

If then it be health and comfort to the faithful that 
Christ descended into the grave, with especial confi- 
dence may we meditate on his return from thence, 
quickened by the Spirit : this being to those who are 
in him the certain pledge, yea, the effectual cause of 
that blessed resurrection for which they themselves 
hope. There is that union betwixt them and their 
Redeemer, that they shall rise by the communication 
and virtue of his rising : not simply by his power — 
for so the wicked likewise to their grief shall be 
raised ; but they by his life as their life. 

COMMENT 
ON THE THREE PRECEDING APHORISMS. 

To the Reader, who has consented to submit his 
mind to my temporary guidance, and who permits me 
to regard him as my pupil or junior fellow-student, I 
continue to address myself. Should he exist only in 
my imagination, let the bread float on the waters! 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 249 

If it be the Bread of Life, it will not have been 
utterly cast away. 

Let us pause a moment, and review the road we 
have passed over since the transit from Religious 
Morality to Spiritual Religion. My first attempt was 
to satisfy you, that there is a spiritual principle in 
man, and to expose the sophistry of the arguments in 
support of the contrary. Our next step was to clear 
the road of all counterfeits, by showing what is not 
the Spirit, what is not spiritual religion. And this 
was followed by an attempt to establish a difference 
in kind between religious truths and the deductions 
of speculative science ; yet so as to prove, that the 
former are not only equally rational with the latter, 
but that they alone appeal to reason in the fulness 
and living reality of their power. This and the state 
of mind requisite for the formation of right convic- 
tions respecting spiritual truths, afterwards employed 
our attention. Having then enumerated the Articles 
of the Christian Faith peculiar to Christianity, I 
entered on the great object of the present Work : 
namely, the removal of all valid objections to these 
articles on grounds of right reason or conscience. 
But to render this practicable, it was necessary, first, 
to present each article in its true Scriptural purity, 
by exposure of the caricatures of misinterpreters ; and 
this, again, could not be satisfactorily done till we 
were agreed respecting the faculty entitled to sit in 
judgment on such questions. I early foresaw that my 
best chance (I will not say, of giving an insight into 
the surpassing worth and transcendant reasonableness 
of the Christian scheme ; but) of rendering the very 
question intelligible, depended on my success in 
determining the true nature and limits of the hu- 
man Understanding, and in evincing its diversity 
from Reason, In pursuing this momentous subject. 



£50 AIDS TO REFLECTION 

T was tempted in two or three instances into disquisi- 
tions, which if not beyond the comprehension, were 
yet unsuited to the taste, of the persons for whom the 
Work was principally intended. These, however, I 
have separated from the running text, and cotnpressed 
into notes. The Reader will at worst, I hope, pass 
them by as a leaf or two of waste paper, willingly given 
by him to those for whom it may not be paper wasted. 
Nevertheless, I cannot conceal that the subject itself 
supposes, on the part of the Reader, a steadiness in 
self-questioning, a pleasure in referring to his own 
inward experience for the facts asserted by the 
Author, which can only be expected from a person 
who has fairly set his heart on arriving at clear and 
fixed conclusions in matters of faith. But where this 
interest is felt, nothing more than a common capa- 
city, with the ordinary advantages of education, is 
required for the complete comprehension both of the 
argument and the result. Let but one thoughtful 
hour be devoted to the pages 167— 176. In all that 
follows, the Reader will find no difficulty in under- 
standing my meaning, whatever he may have in 
adopting it. 

The two great moments of the Christian Religion 
are, Original Sin and Redemption ; that the ground, 
this the superstructure of our faith. The former I 
have exhibited, first, according to the scheme of the 
Westminster Divines and the Synod of Dort; then, 
according to the* scheme of a contemporary Arminian 

* To escape the consequences of this scheme, some 
Arminian divines have asserted that the penalty inflicted 
on Adam, and continued in his posterity, was simply thv, 
loss of immortality — death as the utter extinction of per- 
sonal being : immortality being regarded by them (and not, 
I think, without good reason) as a supernatural attribute, 
and its loss therefore involved in the forfeiture' of super- 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 25 1 

divine ; and lastly, in contrast with botli schemes,' I 
have placed what I firmly believe to be the Scrip- 
natural graces. This theory has its golden side : and, as a 
private opinion, is said to have the countenance of more 
than one dignitary of our Church, whose general orthodoxy 
is beyond impeachment. For here the penalty resolves 
itself into the consequence, and this the natural and naturally 
inevitable consequence of Adam's crime. For Adam, in- 
deed, it was a positive punishment : a punishment of his 
guilt, the justice of which who could have dared arraign ? 
While for the offspring of Adam it was simply a not super- 
adding to their nature the privilege by which the original 
man was contradistinguished from the brute creation — a 
mere negation of which they had no more right to complaii? 
than any other species of animals. God in this view appears 
only in his attribute of mercy, as averting by supernatural 
interposition a consequence naturally inevitable. This is 
the golden side of the theory. But if we approach to it 
from the opposite direction, it first excites a just scruple, 
from the countenance it seems to give to the doctrine of 
Materialism. The supporters of this scheme do not, I 
presume, contend that Adam's offspring would not have 
been born men, but have formed a new species of beasts ! 
And if not, the notion of a rational and self-conscious soul, 
perishing utterly with the dissolution of the organised body, 
seems to require, nay, almost involves, the opinion that tho 
soul is a quality or accident of the body — a mere harmony 
resulting from organisation. 

But let this pass unquestioned. "Whatever else the 
descendants of Adam might have been without the inter- 
cession of Christ, yet (this intercession having been effectually 
made) they are now endowed with souls that are not extin- 
guished together with the material body. Now unless these 
divines teach likewise the Romish figment of Purgatory, and 
to an extent in which the Church of Rome herself w T ould 
denounce the doctrine as an impious heresy : unless they 
hold, that a punishment temporary and remedial is the 
worst evil that the impenitent have to apprehend in a future 
Rtate ; and that the spiritual death declared and foretold by 



252 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tural sense of this article, and vindicated its entire 
conformity with reason and experience. I now pro 
ceed to the other momentous article — from the 
necessitating occasion of the Christian dispensation to 

Christ, the death eternal where the worm never dies, is neither 
death nor eternal, but a certain quantum of suffering in a 
state of faith, hope, and progressive amendment — unless 
they go these lengths (and the divines here intended are 
orthodox Churchmen, men who would not knowingly advance 
even a step on the road towards them) — then I fear that 
any advantage their theory might possess over the Calvinistic 
scheme in the article of Original Sin, would be dearly pur- 
chased by increased difficulties, and an ultra-Calvinistic 
narrowness in the article of Redemption. I at least find it 
impossible, with my present human feelings, not to imagine 
that even in heaven it would be a fearful thing to know, that 
in order to my elevation to a lot infinitely more desirable than 
by nature it would have been, the lot of so vast a multi- 
tude had been rendered infinitely more calamitous ; and that 
my felicity had been purchased by the everlasting misery 
of the majority of my fellow men, who, if no redemption 
had been provided, after inheriting the pains and pleasures 
of earthly existence during the numbered hours, and the 
few and evil — evil yet few — days of the years of their mortal 
life, would have fallen asleep to wake no more, — would 
have sunk into the dreamless sleep of the grave, and have 
been as the murmur and the plaint, and the exulting swell 
and the sharp scream, which the unequal gust of yesterday 
snatched from the strings of a wind-harp. 

In another place I have ventured to question the spirit 
and tendency of Taylor's Work on Repentance.* But I 
ought to have added, that to discover and keep the true 
medium in expounding and applying the efficacy of Christ's 
Cross and Passion, is beyond comparison the most difficult 
and delicate point of practical divinity — and that which 
especially needs a guidance from above. 



* See also " Notes on English Divines," vol. I pp. 247—272. 
— Ed. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 253 

Christianity itself. For Christianity and Redemption 
are equivalent terms. And here my comment will be 
comprised in a few sentences : for I confine my views 
to the one object of clearing this awful mystery from 
those too current misrepresentations of its nature and 
import, that have laid it open to scruples and objec- 
tions, not to such as shoot forth from an unbelieving 
heart — (against these a sick bed will be a more effec- 
tual antidote than all the argument in the world) — 
but to such scruples as have their birth-place in the 
reason and moral sense. Not that it is a mystery — 
Aot that it passeth all understanding ; if the doctrine 
be more than a hyperbolical phrase, it must do so ; 
— but that it is at variance with the law revealed in 
the conscience; that it contradicts our moral instincts 
and intuitions — this is the difficulty which alone is 
worthy of an answer. And what better way is there 
of correcting the misconceptions than by laying open 
the source and occasion of them ? What surer way 
of removing the scruples and prejudices, to which 
these misconceptions have given rise, than by pro- 
pounding the mystery itself — namely, the Redemptive 
Act, as the transcendant cause of salvation — in the 
express and definite words in which it was enunciated 
by the Redeemer Himself? 

But here, in addition to the three Aphorisms pre- 
ceding, I interpose a view of Redemption as appro- 
priated by faith, coincident with Leighton's, though 
for the greater part expressed in my own words. 
This I propose as the right view. Then follow a few 
sentences transcribed from Field (an excellent divine 
of the reign of James L, of whose work on the 
Church,- it would be difficult to speak too highly), 
containing the questions to be solved, and which are 

* See t( Kotes on English Divines," vol. i.pp. 35 — 64. — Ed, 



254 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

numbered as an Aphorism, rather to preserve the 
uniformity of appearance, than as being strictly such 
Then follows the Comment : as part and commence- 
ment of which the Reader will consider the two para- 
graphs of pp. 158-9, written for this purpose, and in 
the foresight of the present inquiry: and I entreat 
him therefore to begin the Comment by re-perusing 
these. 

APHORISM XVIII. 

Stedfast by faith. This is absolutely necessary 
for resistance to the evil principle. There is no 
standing out without some firm ground to stand on : 
and this faith alone supplies. By faith in the love 
of Christ the power of God becomes ours. When 
the soul is beleaguered by enemies, weakness on the 
walls, treachery at the gates, and corruption in the 
citadel, then by faith she says — Lamb of God 6lain 
from the foundation of the world ! Thou art my 
strength ! I look to thee for deliverance ! And thus 
she overcomes. The pollution [miasma) of sin is 
precipitated by his blood, the power of sin is con- 
quered by his Spirit. The Apostle says not — sted- 
fast by your own resolutions and purposes ; but — 
stedfast by faith. Nor yet stedfast in your will, but 
stedfast in the faith. We are not to be looking to, 
or brooding over ourselves, either for accusation or 
for confidence, or (by a deep yet too frequent self- 
delusion) to obtain the latter by making a merit to 
ourselves of the former. But we are to look to 
Christ and him crucified. The law that is very nigh 
to thee, even in thy heart : the law that condemneth 
and hath no promise ; that stoppeth the guilty past 
in its swift flight, and maketh it disown its name; 
the law will accuse thee enough.* Linger not in the 

* Additional note. — This and one or two other similar 



ON SPIRITUAL fiEtt&lOK. 255 

justice-court listening to thy indictment. Loiter not 
in waiting to hear the sentence. No, anticipate the 

passages were written for the purpose of accustoming the 
young Student to St. Paul's style of thought and expression. 
The impersonation of the Act is in imitation of the Apostle's 
impersonations of Sin, Law, &c, and the following remarks 
may show that they are more than Hebraisms or Figures of 
Rhetoric. 

It is not the criminal Deed (= Factum), but the sinful 
Act (= Facinus) that wounds the Conscience. But the Act 
is inseparable from its spiritual source. See Aph. XII. 

It is one with the sinful Will, one therefore with the 
Agent, the man himself sensu eminenti. As long as the Will 
remains the same (in theological language- as long as the 
man is unregenerate) the Act is evermore present in the 
Will, even when through spiritual lethargy it is not present 
to the Conscience. It is the Deed only that can be rightly 
spoken of as the past, id quod factum fuit. Still, however, 
among the trials and devices of self-delusion, the Act (= the 
Agent thus abstracted) would fain lose itself in the Deed ; 
and under the impulse it usurps the name, and transfers 
to itself the predicates, or proper characters of the Deed, 
ex. gr. its singleness, its detachoMlity for the imagination, 
its particularity and above all, its pastness. In the language 
of the day we should express all this by saying, that the 
Sinner cheats himself by transferring his attention from the 
corrupt slate of his Moral Being, to some one or more con* 
tingent result, product, or symptom, of that state. 

rfow the Law in the Conscience working remorse, detects 
and unmasks this imposture, compelling the Act (i. <?., the 
Sinner considered abstractedly in relation to the Sin) to feel 
and confess its continuing and abiding presentness. 

In the very act of Remorse, the guilty person finds and is 
made to know, that the Act is present in its abiding Principle 
and as one with — its Principles. 

Even to the inmost mind, the guilty Act is constrained by 
the Law to disown its name, as past : as long as the corrupt 
source remains unregenerate- But the regenerate Will 
(which the Apostle aptly calls the New Man) is by Gract 



°56 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

verdict Appeal to Caesar. Haste to the king for a 
pardon. Struggle thitherward, though in fetters ; 
and cry aloud, and collect the whole remaining 
strength of thy will in the outcry — I believe ; Lord, 
help my unbelief ! Disclaim all right of property in 
thy fetters. Say that they belong to the old man, 
and that thou dost but carry them to the grave to be 
buried with their owner ! Fix thy thought on what 
Christ did, what Christ suffered, what Christ is — 
as if thou wouldst fill the hollowness of thy soul with 
Christ. If he emptied himself of glory to become sin 
for thy salvation, must not thou be emptied of thy 
sinful self to become righteousness in and through 
his agony and the effective merits of his Cross?* 

and not by the Law. Does not Experience confirm and 
bear witness to the truth of this doctrine ? Remorse can 
torment, but Remorse without Hope never yet reformed a 
Sinner. Remorse is no Purgatory Angel. It is a light 
that burns. Now there is no true Hope but in and through 
Christ. 

* God manifested in the flesh is eternity in the form of 
time. But eternity in relation to time is as the absolute to 
the conditional, or the real to the apparent, and Redemption 
must partake of both; — always perfected, for it is a Fiat of 
the Eternal ; — continuous, for it is a process in relation to 
man; the former the alone objectively, and therefore uni* 
versally, true. That Redemption is an opus pcrfectum, a 
finished work, the claim to which is conferred in Baptism ; 
that a Christian cannot speak or think as if his redemption by 
the blood, and his justification by the righteousness of Christ 
alone, were future or contingent events, but must both say 
and think, I have been redeemed, I am justified; lastly, 
chat for as many as are received into his Church by Baptism, 
Christ has condemned sin in the flesh, has made it dead in 
law, that is, no longer imputable as guilt, has destroyed the 
objective reality of sin : — these are truths, which all the 
Reformed Churches, Swedish, Danish, Evangelical, (or 



0.\ SLHK.TUAL KELIGION. 257 

By what other means, in what other form, is it pos- 
sible for thee to stand in the presence of the Holy 

Lutheran,) the Reformed, (the Calvinistic in mid-Germany, 
Holland, France, and Geneva, so called,) lastly, the Church 
of England, and the Church of Scotland — nay, the best and 
most learned divines of the Roman Catholic Church have 
united in upholding as most certain and necessary articles 
of faith, and the effectual preaching of which Luther 
declares to be the appropriate criterion stantis vel cadentis 
Ecclesice. The Church is standing or falling, according as 
this doctrine is supported, or overlooked, or countervened. 
Nor has the contrary doctrine, according to which the 
baptised are yet each individually to be called, converted, 
and chosen, with all the corollaries from this assumption, 
the watching for signs and sensible assurances, the frames, 
and the states, and the feelings, and the sudden conversions, 
the contagious fever-boils of the (most unfitly, so called) 
Evangelicals, and Arminian Methodists of the day, been in 
any age taught or countenanced by any known and accredited 
Christian Church, or by any body and succession of learned 
divines. On the other hand, it has rarely happened that 
the Church has not been troubled by Pharisaic and fanatical 
individuals, who have sought, by working on the fears and 
feelings of the w r eak and unsteady, that celebrity which they 
could not obtain by learning and orthodoxy ; and alas ! so 
subtle is the poison, and so malignant in its operation, that 
it is almost hopeless to attempt the cure of any person once 
infected, more particularly when, as most often happens, 
the patient is a woman. Nor does Luther, in his numerous 
and admirable discourses on this point, conceal or palliate 
the difficulties which the carnal mind, that works under 
many and different disguises, throws in the way to prevent 
the laying firm hold of the truth. One most mischievous 
and very popular mis-belief must be cleared away in the first 
instance — the presumption, I mean, that whatever is not 
quite simple, and what any plain body can understand at 
the first hearing, cannot be of necessaiy belief, or among 
the fundamental articles or essentials of Christian faith. A 
docile child-like mind, a deference to the authority of the 



258 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

One? With what mind wouldst thou come before 
God, if not with the mind of Him, In whom alone 
God loveth the world ? With good advice, perhaps, 
and a little assistance, thou wouldst rather cleanse 
and patch up a mind of thy own, and offer it as thy 
admission-right, thy qualification, to Him who charged 
his angels ivith folly ! Oh ! take counsel of thy 
reason. It will show thee how impossible it is that 
even a world should merit the love of eternal wisdom 
and all-sufficing beatitude, otherwise than as it is 
contained in that all-perfect Idea, in which the 
Supreme Spirit contemplate th himself and the pleni- 
tude of his infinity — the Only-Begotten before all 

Churches, a presumption of the truth of doctrines that have 
been received and taught as true by the whole Church in all 
times; reliance on the positive declarations of the Apostle — 
in short, all the convictions of the truth of a doctrine that 
are previous to a perfect insight into its truth, because these 
convictions, with the affections and dispositions accom- 
panying them, are the very means and conditions of attaining 
to that insight — and study of, and quiet meditation on, 
them with a gradual growth of spiritual knowledge and 
earnest prayer for its increase ; all these, to each and all of 
which the young Christian is so repeatedly and fervently 
exhorted by St. Paul, are to be superseded, because, forsooth, 
truths needful for all men must be quite simple and easy, 
and adapted to the capacity of all, even of the plainest and 
dullest understanding ! What cannot be poured all at 
once on a man, can only be supererogatory drops from the 
emptied shower-bath of religious instruction ! But surely, 
the more rational inference would be, that the faith, which 
is to save the whole man, must have its roots and justifying 
grounds in the very depths of our being. And he who can 
read the writings of the Apostles, John and Paul, without 
finding in almost every page a confirmation of this, must 
have looked at them, as at the sun in an eclipse, through 
blackened glasses. 






ON SPlKtTUAL RELIGION. 259 

ages, the beloved Son, in ivhom the Father is indeed 
well pleased ! 

And as the mind, so the body with which it is to 
be clothed ; as the indweller, so the house in which 
it is to be the abiding-place.* There is but one 

* St. Paul blends both forms of expression, and asserts 
the same doctrine, when speaking of the celestial body pro- 
vided for the new man in the spiritual flesh and blood, (that 
is, the informing power and vivific life of the incarnate 
Word : for the blood is the life, and the flesh the power) — 
when speaking, I say, of this celestial body, as a house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens, yet brought down to 
us, made appropriable by faith, and ours — he adds, for in 
this earthly house (that is, this mortal life, as the inward 
principle or energy of our tabernacle, or outward and 
sensible body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon 
with our house which is from heaven : not that we would be 
unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed 
up of life. — 2 Cor. v. 1 — 4. 

The last four words of the first verse (eternal in the 
heavens) compared with the conclusion of v. 2, (which is from 
heaven) present a coincidence with John iii. 13, "And no man 
hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came dozen from heaven, 
even the Son of Man, which is in heaven." Would not the 
coincidence be more apparent if the words of John had been 
rendered word for word, even to a disregard of the English 
idiom, and with what would be servile and superstitious 
fidelity in the translation of a common classic 1 I can see 
no reason why the ovSels, so frequent in St. John, should 
not be rendered literally, no one; and there may be a reason 
why it should. I have some doubt likewise respecting the 
omission of the definite articles rhv } rod, too — and a greater 
as to the 6 &v, both in this place and in John i. 18, being 
adequately rendered by our which is. What sense some of 
the Greek Fathers attached to, or inferred from, St. Paul's in 
the heavens, the theological student (and to theologians is 
this note principally addressed) may find in Waterland's 
Letters to a Country Clergyman — a divine, whose judgment 



260 AIDS TO KEFLECT1CN. 

wedding-garment, in which we can sit down at the 
marriage feast of Heaven : and that is the bride- 

and strong sound sense are as unquestionable as his learning 
and orthodoxy. A clergyman, in full orders, who has never 
read the works of Bull and Waterland, has a duty yet to 
perform. 

Let it not be objected, that, forgetful of my own professed 
aversion to allegorical interpretations, I have, in this note, 
fallen into the fond humour of the mystic divines, and alle- 
gorisers of Holy Writ. There is, believe me, a wide difference 
between symbolical and allegorical. If I say that the flesh 
and blood (corpus noitmenon) of the Incarnate Word are 
power and life, I say likewise that this mysterious power 
and life are verily and actually the flesh and blood of Christ. 
They are the allegorisers who turn the sixth chapter of the 
Gospel according to St. John, the hard saying, — who can hear 
it? — after which time many of Christ's disciples, who had 
been eye-witnesses of his mighty miracles, who had heard 
the sublime morality of his Sermon on the Mount, had 
glorified God for the wisdom which they had heard, and had 
been prepared to acknowledge, This is indeed the Christ,— 
went back and walked no more with him ! — the hard sayings, 
which even the Twelve were not yet competent to under- 
stand farther than that they were to be spiritually under- 
stood ; and which the chief of the Apostles was content to 
receive with an implicit and anticipative faith ! — they, I 
repeat, are the allegorisers who moralise these hard sayings, 
these high words of mystery, into a hyperbolical metaphor 
per catachresin, which only means a belief of the doctrine 
which Paul believed, an obedience to the law respecting which 
Paul ivas blameless, before the voice called him on the road 
to Damascus ! What every parent, every humane preceptor, 
would do when a child had misunderstood a metaphor or 
apokigue in a literal sense, we all know. But the meek and 
merciful Jesus suffered many of his disciples to fall off from 
eternal life, when, to retain them, he had. only to say, — ye 
simple ones ! why are ye offended] My words, indeed, 
sound strange ; but I mean no more than what you have 
often and often heard from me before, with delight and entire 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 261 

groom's own gift, when he gave himself for us, that 
we might live in him and he in us. There is but one 
robe of righteousness, even the spiritual body, formed 
by the assimilative power of faith, for whoever eateth 
the flesh of the Son of Man, and drinketh his blood. 
Did Christ come from Heaven, did the Son of God 
leave the glory which he had with his Father before 
the world began, only to show us a way to life, 
to teach truths, to tell us of a resurrection ? Or 
saith he not, I am the way — I am the truth — I am 
the resurrection and the life ? 

APHORISM XIX. 

FIELD. 

The Romanists teach that sins committed after 
Baptism (that is, for the immense majority of Chris- 
tians having Christian parents, all their sins from 
the cradle to the grave) are not so remitted for 
Christ's sake, but that we must suffer that extremity 
of punishment which they deserve : and therefore 
either we must afflict ourselves in such sort and 
degree of extremity as may answer the demerit of 
our sins, or be punished by God, here, or in the 
world to come, in such degree and sort that his 
justice may be satisfied. [As the encysted venom, 
or poison-bag, beneath the adder's fang, so does this 
doctrine lie beneath the tremendous power of the 
Romish Hierarchy. The demoralising influence of 
this dogma, and that it curdled the very life-blood 

acquiescence. — Credat Judceus ! Non ego. It is sufficient for 
me to know that I have used the language of Paul and 
John, as it was understood and interpreted by Justin Martyr, 
Tertulliau, Irenaeus, and (if he does not err) by the whole 
Christian Church then existing. (See " Table Talk;" p. 72. 
2nd edit.— Ed.) 



262 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

in the veins of Christendom, it was given to Luther, 
heyond all men since Paul, to see, feel, and promul 
gate. And yet in his large Treatise on Repentance, 
how near to the spirit of this doctrine — even to the 
very walls and gates of Babylon — was Jeremy Taylor 
driven, in recoiling from the fanatical extremes of 
the opposite error !] But they that are orthodox, 
teach that it is injustice to require the paying of one 
debt twice.* * * It is no less absurd to say, as the 
Papists do, that our satisfaction is required as a con- 
dition, without which Christ's satisfaction is not ap- 
plicable unto us, than to say, Peter hath paid the 
debt of John, and he to whom it was due accepteth of 
the payment on the condition that John pay it 
himself also.* * * The satisfaction of Christ is 
communicated and applied unto us without suffering 
the punishment that sin deserveth, [and essentially 
involveth,] upon the condition of our faith and re- 
pentance. [To which I would add : Without faith 
there is no power of repentance : without a com- 
mencing repentance no power to faith : and that it 
is in the power of the will either to repent or to 
have faith in the Gospel sense of the words, is itself 
a consequence of the redemption of mankind, a free 
gift of the Redeemer : the guilt of its rejection, the 
refusing to avail ourselves of the power, being all 
that we can consider as exclusively attributable to 
our own act.] 

COMMENT 

(CONTAINING an application of the principles laid down 
in PP. 158-159). 

Forgiveness of sin, the abolition of guilt, through 
the redemptive power of Christ's love, and of his. 
perfect obedience during his voluntary assumption of 
humanity, is expressed, on account of the resemblance 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 263 

of the consequences in both, cases, by the payment of 
a debt for another, which debt the payer had not 
himself incurred. Now the impropriation of this me 
taphor — (that is, the taking it literally) — by trans- 
ferring the sameness from the consequents to the 
antecedents, or inferring the identity of the causes 
from a resemblance in the effects — this is the point 
on which I am at issue : and the view or scheme of 
Redemption grounded on this confusion I believe to 
be altogether un- Scriptural. 

Indeed, I know not in what other instance I could 
better exemplify the species of sophistry noticed in 
p. 173, as the Aristotelean nerafiacris eh akko 
yevos, or clandestine passing over into a diverse 
kind. The purpose of a metaphor is to illustrate a 
something less known by a partial identification of it 
with some other thing better understood, or at least 
more familiar. Now the article of Redemption may 
be considered in a twofold relation — in relation t<r 
the antecedent, that is, the Redeemer's act, as the 
efficient cause and condition of redemption ; and in 
relation to the consequent, that is, the effects in and 
for the Redeemed. Now it is the latter relation, in 
which the subject is treated of, set forth, expanded, 
and enforced by St. Paul. The mysterious act, the 
operative cause, is transcendant. Factum est: and 
beyond the information contained in the enunciation 
of the fact, it can be characterised only by the conse- 
quences. It is the consequences of the act of Re- 
demption, which the zealous Apostle would bring 
home to the minds and affections both of Jews and 
Gentiles. Now the Apostle's opponents and gain- 
sayers were principally of the former class. They 
were Jews : not only Jews unconverted, but such as 
had partially received the Gospel, and who, sheltering 
their national prejudices under the pretended authority 



2C4 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

flf Christ's original Apostles and the Church in 
Jerusalem, set themselves up against Paul as fol- 
lowers of Cephas. Add too, that Paul himself was 
a Hebrew of the Hebrews; intimately versed in the 
Jews' religion above many his equals in his own 
nation, and above measure zealous of the traditions 
of his fathers. It might, therefore, have been anti- 
cipated that his reasoning would receive its outward 
forms and language, that it would take its predomi- 
nant colours, from his own past, and his opponents' 
present, habits of thinking; and that his figures, 
images, analogies, and references would be taken 
preferably from objects, opinions, events, and ritual 
observances ever uppermost in the imaginations of 
his own countrymen. And such we find them ; — yet 
so judiciously selected, that the prominent forms, 
the figures of most frequent recurrence, are drawn 
from points of belief and practice, forms, laws, rites 
and customs, which then prevailed through the 
w T hole Roman world, and were common to Jew and 
Gentile. 

Xow it would be difficult if not impossible to 
select points better suited to this purpose, as being 
equally familiar to all, and yet having a special 
interest for the Jewish cpn verts, than those are from 
which the learned Apostle has drawn the four prin- 
cipal metaphors, by which he illustrates the blessed 
consequences of Christ's redemption of mankind. 
These are ; 1. Sin offerings, sacrificial expiation. 
2. reconciliation, atonement, KaraAAayr/.* 3. Ran- 

* This word occurs but once in the New Testament, 
Rom. v. 11, the marginal rendering being reconciliation. 
The personal noun, Kara\XaKT7]s is still in use with the 
modern Greeks for a money-changer, or one who takes the 
debased currency, so general in countries under a despotic 
or other dishonest government, in exchange for sterling coin 



OX SPIRITUAL RELTGTON. 205 

som from slavery, redemption, the buying back again ; 
or being bought back. 4. Satisfaction of a creditor's 
claims by a payment of the debt. To one or other 
of these four heads all the numerous forms and 
exponents of Christ's mediation in St. Paul's writings 

or bullion ; the purchaser paying the KaraWaryi], that is, the 
difference. In the elder Greek writers, the verb means to 
exchange for an opposite, as KaraWaaaero ri]v exOprju ro?s 
o-TCLo-iuTais — He exchanged within himself enmity for friend- 
ship, (that is, he reconciled himself) with his party ; — or, as 
we say, made it up with them, an idiom which (with what- 
ever loss of dignity) gives the exact force of the word. He 
made up the difference. The Hebrew word, of very frequent 
occurrence in the Pentateuch, which we render by the sub- 
stantive atonement, has its radical or visual image in coplier, 
pitch. Gen. vi. 14. Thou shalt 'pitch it within and without 
with pitch ; — hence, to unite, to fill up a breach or leak, the 
word expressing both the act, namely the bringing together 
what had been previously separated, and the means, or 
material, by which the re-union is effected, as in our English 
verbs, to caulk, to solder, to poy or pay (from poix, pitch), 
and the French suivcr. Thence, metaphorically, expiation, 
the piacula having the same root, and being grounded on 
another property or use of gums and resins, the supposed 
cleansing powers of their fumigation ; Numb. viii. 21 : made 
atonement for the Levites to cleanse them. — Lastly (or if we are 
to believe the Hebrew Lexicons, properly and most fre- 
quently) it means ransom. But if by proper, the interpreters 
mean primary and radical, the assertion does not need a con- 
futation : all radicals belonging to one or other of three 
classes ; — 1. Interjections, or sounds expressing sensations 
or passions. 2. Imitations of sounds, as splash, roar, whiz, 
&c. 3. And principally, visual images, objects of sight. But 
as to frequency, in all the numerous (fifty I believe,) instances 
of the word in the Old Testament, I have not found one in 
which it can, or at least need, be rendered by ransom : 
though beyond all doubt, random is used in the Epistle to 
Timothy as an. equivalent term. 



266 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

may be referred. And the very number and variety 
of the words or periphrases used by him to express 
one and the same thing, furnish the strongest pre- 
sumptive proof that all alike were used metaphorically. 
[In the following notation, let the small letters 
represent the effects or consequences, and the capitals 
the efficient causes or antecedents. Whether by 
causes we mean acts or agents, is indifferent. Now 
let X signify a transcendant, that is, a cause beyond our 
comprehension, and not within the sphere of sensible 
experience ; and on the other hand, let A, B. C, and 
D represent each one known and familiar cause, in 
reference to some single and characteristic effect : 
namely, A in reference to k, B to 1, C to m, ana 
D to n. Then I say X + k 1 m n is in different places 
expressed by A + k; B + l; C + m; D-fn. And 
these I should call metaphorical exponents of X.] 

Now John, the beloved disciple, who leaned on the 
Lord's bosom, the Evangelist Kara irvevixa, that is, 
according to the spirit, the inner and substantial 
truth of the Christian Creed — John, recording the 
Redeemer's own words, enunciates the fact itself, to 
the full extent in which it is enunciable for the 
human mind, simply and without any metaphor, by 
identifying it in kind with a fact of hourly occurrence 
■ — expressing it, I say, by a familiar fact the same in 
kind with that intended, though of a far lower 
dignity; — by a fact of every man's experience, known to 
all, yet not better understood than the fact described 
by it. In the redeemed it is a re-generation, a 
6irth, a spiritual seed impregnated and evolved, the 
germinal principle of a higher and enduring life, 
of a spiritual life — that is, a life the actuality of 
which is not dependent on the material body, or 
limited by the circumstances and processes indispen- 
sable to its organisation and subsistence. Briefly, it 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. SfiT 

is the differential of immortality, o£ which the 
assimilative power of faith and love is the integrant, 
and the life in Christ the integration. 

But even this would he an imperfect statement, if 
we omitted the awful truth, that besides that dissolu- 
tion of our earthly tabernacle which we call death, 
there is another death, not the mere negation of life, 
but its positive opposite. And as there is a mystery 
of life, and an assimilation to the principle of life, 
even to him who is the Life ; so is there a mystery 
of death, and an assimilation to the principle of evil ; 
a fructifying of the corrupt seed, of which death is 
the germination. Thus the regeneration to spiritual 
life is at the same time a redemption from the spiritual 
death. 

Respecting the Redemptive Act itself, and the 
Divine Agent, we know from revelation that he was 
made a quickening ((loottoiovv, life-making) Spirit: 
and that in order to this it was necessary that God 
should be manifested in th e flesh ; that the Eternal 
Word, through whom and by whom the world (ko'ct/lio?, 
the order, beauty, and sustaining law of visible 
natures) was and is, should be made flesh, assume 
our humanity personally, fulfil all righteousness, and 
so suffer and so die for us, as in dying to conquer 
death for as many as should receive him. More than 
this, the mode, the possibility, we are not competent 
to know. It is, as hath been already observed con- 
cerning the primal act of apostasy, a mystery by the 
necessity of the subject — a mystery, which at all 
events it will be time enough for us to seek and 
expect to understand, when we understand the 
mystery of our natural life, and its conjunction with 
mind and will and personal identity. Even the 
truths that are given to us to know, we can know 
only through faith in the spirit. They are spiritual 



d68 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

things which must be spiritually discerned. Such, 
however, being the means and the effects of our 
redemption, well might the fervent Apostle associate 
it with whatever was eminently dear and precious to 
erring and afflicted mortals, and (where no expression 
could be commensurate, no single title be other than 
imperfect) seek from similitude of effect to describe 
the superlative boon, by successively transferring to 
it, as by a superior claim, the name of each several 
act and ordinance, habitually connected in the minds 
of all his hearers with feelings of joy, confidence, and 
gratitude. 

Do you rejoice when the atonement made by the 
priest has removed the civil stain from your name, 
restored you to your privileges as a son of Abraham, 
and replaced you in the respect of your brethren? — 
Here is an atonement which takes away a deeper and 
worse stain, and eating canker-spot in the very heart 
of your personal being. This, to as many as receive 
it, gives the privilege to become sons of God (John i. 
12) ; this will admit you to the society of angels, and 
insure to you the rights of brotherhood with spirits 
made perfect. (Heb. xii. 22.) Here is a sacrifice, 
a sin-offering for the whole world : and a High Priest, 
who is indeed a Mediator; who, not in type or 
shadow, but in very truth, and in his own right, 
stands in the place of Man to God, and of God to 
Man ; and who receives as a Judge what he offered 
as an advocate. 

Would you be grateful to one who had ransomed 
you from slavery under a bitter foe, or who brought 
you out of captivity? Here is redemption from a far 
direr slavery, the slavery of sin unto death; and he 
who gave himself for the ransom, has taken captivity 
captive. 

Had you by your own fault alienated yourself from 






ON SPlKITUAL EEL1GION. 2G9 

your best, your only sure friend ; — had you, like a 
prodigal, cast yourself out of your Father's house ; — 
would you not love the good Samaritan, who should 
reconcile you to your friend ? Would you not prize 
above all price the intercession, which had brought 
you back from husks, and the tending of swine, and 
restored you to your father's arms, and seated you at 
your father's table? 

Had you involved yourself in a heavy debt for cer- 
tain gewgaws, for high seasoned meats, and intoxi- 
cating drinks, and glistering apparel, and in default 
of payment had made yourself over as a bondsman to 
a hard creditor, who, it was foreknown, would enforce 
the bond of judgment to the last tittle ; — with what 
emotions would you not receive the glad tidings that 
a stranger, or a friend whom in the days of your wan- 
tonness you had neglected and reviled, had paid the 
debt for you, had made satisfaction to your creditor? 
But you have incurred a debt of death to the evil 
nature ; you have sold yourself over to sin ; and, 
relatively to you, and to all your means and re- 
sources, the seal on the bond is the seal of necessity. 
Its stamp is the nature of evil. But the stranger has 
appeared, the forgiving friend has come, even the Son 
of God from heaven : and to as many as have faith 
in his name, I say — the debt is paid for you ; — the 
satisfaction has been made. 

Now, to simplify the argument, and at the same 
time to bring the question to the test, we will confine 
our attention to the figure last mentioned, namely, 
the satisfaction of a debt. Passing by our modern 
Alogi, who find nothing but metaphors in either 
Apostle, let us suppose for a moment, with certain 
divines, that our Lord's words, recorded by John, and 
which in all places repeat and assert the same ana- 
logy are to be regarded as metaphorical ; and that 



270 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

it is the varied expressions of St. Paul that are to be 
literally interpreted : for example, that sin is, or 
involves, an infinite debt, (in the proper and law- 
court sense of the word, debt) — a debt owing by us to 
the vindictive justice of God the Father, which can 
only be liquidated by the everlasting misery of Adam 
and all his posterity, or by a sum of suffering equal 
to this. Likewise, that God the Father, by his 
absolute decree, or (as some divines teach) through the 
necessity of his unchangeable justice, had determined 
to exact the full sum ; which must, therefore, be paid 
either by ourselves or by some other in our name and 
behalf. But besides the debt which all mankind con- 
tracted in and through Adam, as a homo publicus, 
even as a nation is bound by the acts of its head or 
its plenipotentiary, every man (say these divines) is 
an insolvent debtor on his own score. In this fear- 
ful predicament the Son of God took compassion on 
mankind, and resolved to pay the debt for us, and to 
satisfy the divine justice by a perfect equivalent. 
Accordingly, by a strange yet strict consequence, it 
has been holden by more than one of these divines, 
that the agonies suffered by Christ were equal in 
amount to the sum total of the torments of all man- 
kind here and hereafter, or to the infinite debt, which 
in an endless succession of instalments we shorn 1 . ( 
have been paying to the divine justice, had it not 
been paid in full by the Son of God incarnate ! 

It is easy to say — " O but I do not hold this, or 
we do not make this an article of our belief ! " The 
true question is ; "Do you take any part of it; and 
can you reject the rest without being inconsequent? ' 
Are debt, satisfaction, payment in full, creditor's 
rights, and the like, nomina propria, by which the 
very nature of Redemption and its occasion are 
expressed ; — or are they, with several others, figures 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION 271 

of speech for the purpose of illustrating the nature 
and extent of the consequences and effects of the 
Redemptive Act, and to excite in the receivers a due 
sense of the magnitude and manifold operation of the 
boon, and of the love and gratitude due to the Re- 
deemer? If still you reply, the former: then, as 
your whole theory is grounded on a notion of justice, 
I ask you — Is this justice a moral attribute ? But 
morality commences with, and begins in, the sacred 
distinction between thing and person. On this dis- 
tinction all law, human and divine, is grounded : 
consequently, the law of justice. If you attach any 
meaning to the term justice, as applied to God, it 
must be the same to which you refer when you affirm 
or deny it of any other personal agent — save only, 
that in its attribution to God, you speak of it as 
unmixed and perfect. For if not, what do you mean? 
And why do you call it by the same name ? I may, 
therefore, with all right and reason, put the case as 
between man and man. For should it be found irre- 
concileable with the justice which the light of reason, 
made law in the conscience, dictates to man, how 
much more must it be incongruous with the all- 
perfect justice of God ! Whatever case I should 
imagine would be felt by the reader as below the 
dignity of the subject, and in some measure jarring 
with his feelings ; and in other respects the more 
familiar the case, the better suited to the present 
purpose. 

A sum of 1000L is due from James to Peter, for 
which James has given a bond. He is insolvent, and 
the bond is on the point of being put in suit against 
him, to James's utter ruin. i\.t this moment Matthew 
steps in, pays Peter the thousand pounds, and dis- 
charges the bond. In this case, no man would 
hesitate to admit, that a complete satisfaction had 



272 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

been made to Peter. Matthew's 1000Z. is a perfect 
equivalent for the sum which James was bound to 
have paid, and which Peter had lent. It is the same 
thing, and this is altogether a question of things. 
Now instead of James's being indebted to Peter in a 
sum of money which (he having become insolvent) 
Matthew pays for him, let me put the case, that 
James had been guilty of the basest and most hard- 
hearted ingratitude to a most worthy and affectionate 
mother, who had not only performed all the duties 
and tender offices of a mother, but whose whole heart 
was bound up in this her only child — who had fore- 
gone all the pleasures and amusements of life in 
watching over his sickly childhood, had sacrificed her 
health and the far greater part of her resources to 
rescue him from the consequences of his follies and 
excesses during his youth and early manhood ; and 
to procure for him the means of his present rank 
and affluence — all which he had repaid by neglect, 
desertion, and open profligacy. Here the mother 
stands in the relation of the creditor : and here too, 
I will suppose the same generous friend to interfere, 
and to perform with the greatest tenderness and con- 
stancy all those duties of a grateful and affectionate 
son, which James ought to have performed. Will 
this satisfy the mother's claims on James, or entitle 
him to her esteem, approbation, and blessing ? Or 
what if Matthew the vicarious son, should at length 
address her in words to this purpose : " Now, I trust 
you are appeased, and will be henceforward recon- 
ciled to James. I have satisfied all your claims on 
him. I have paid his debt in full : and you are too 
just to require the same debt to be paid twice over 
You will therefore regard him with the same compla- 
cency, and receive him into your presence with the 
same love, as if there had been no difference between 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 273 

Irira and you. For I have made it up." What other 
reply could the swelling heart of the mother dictate 
than this : "0 misery ! and is it possible that you 
are in league with my unnatural child to insult me ? 
Must not the very necessity of your abandonment of 
your proper sphere form an additional evidence of his 
guilt? Must not the sense of your goodness teach 
me more fully to comprehend, more vividly to feel, 
the evil in him ? Must not the contrast of your 
merits magnify his demerit in his mother's eye, and 
at once recall and embitter the conviction of the 
canker-worm in his soul ? " 

If indeed by the force of Matthew's example, by 
persuasion, or by additional and more mysterious 
influences, or by an inward co-agency, compatible 
with the existence of a personal will, James should be 
led to repent ; if through admiration and love of this 
great goodness gradually assimilating his mind to the 
mind of his benefactor, he should in his own person 
become a grateful and dutiful child — then doubtless 
the mother would be wholly satisfied ? But then the 
case is no longer a question of things, or a matter of 
debt payable by another. Nevertheless, the effect, — 
and the Reader will remember that it is the effects 
and consequences of Christ's mediation, on which St. 
Paul is dilating — the effect to James is similar in 
both cases, that is in the case of James, the debtor, and 
of James, the undutiful son. In both cases, James 
is liberated from a grievous burthen : and in both 
cases, he has to attribute his liberation to the act and 
free grace of another. The only difference is, that 
in the former case (namely, the payment of the debt) 
the beneficial act is, singly and without requiring 
any re-action or co-agency on the part of James, the 
efficient cause of his liberation ; while in the latter 
case (namely, that of Redemption) the beneficial act 



274 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

is the first, the indispensable condition, and then, the 
co-efficient. 

The professional student of theology will, perhaps, 
understand the different positions asserted in the pre- 
ceding argument more readily if they are presented 
synoptically, that is, brought at once within his view, 
in the form of answers to four questions, comprising 
the constituent parts of the Scriptural doctrine of 
Redemption. And I trust that my lay readers of 
both sexes will not allow 7 themselves to be scared 
from the perusal of the following short catechism, 
by half a dozen Latin words, or rather words with 
Latin endings, that translate themselves into English, 
when I dare assure them, that they will encounter no 
other obstacle to their full and easy comprehension of 
the contents. 

Synopsis of the constituent points in the doctrine of 
Redemption, in four questions, with correspondent 
answers. 

Questions, 

^lo Agens causator? 

VJh ( *WV» i\ ' +] J ^" ^ ctus cansativus ? 
^ ' ] 8. Effectum causatum ? 

\ji. Consequentia ab effecto ? 

Answers. 

L The agent and personal Cause of the Eedemp- 
tion of mankind is — the co-eternal Word and only 
begotten Son of the Living God, incarnate, tempted, 
agonising (agonistes ayooviC6\xevos\ crucified, sub 
mitting to death, resurgent, communicant of his 
Spirit, ascendent, and obtaining for his Church the 
descent and communion of the Holy Spirit, the 
Comforter. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 870 

IT. The Causative Act is — a spiritual and trans- 
cendent mystery, that passeth all understanding. 

III. The Effect Caused is — the being born anew : 
as before in the flesh to the world, so now born in the 
spirit to Christ. 

IV. The Consequences from the Effect are — sanc- 
tification from sin, and liberation from the inherent 
and penal consequences of sin in the world to come, 
with all the means and processes of sanctification by 
the Word and the Spirit : these consequents being the 
same for the sinner relatively to God and his own soul, 
as the satisfaction of a debt for a debtor relatively to 
his creditor ; as the sacrificial atonement made by the 
priest for the transgressor of the Mosaic Law ; as the 
reconciliation to an alienated parent for a son who had 
estranged himself from his father's house and presence; 
and as a redemptive ransom for a slave or captive. 

Now I complain, that this metaphorical naming of 
the transcendent causative act through the medium of 
its proper effects from actions and causes of familiar 
occurrence connected with the former by similarity of 
result, has been mistaken for an intended designation 
of the essential character of the causative act itself; 
and that thus divines have interpreted de omni what 
was spoken de singulo, and magnified a partial equa- 
tion into a total identity. 

I will merely hint to my more learned readers, and 
to the professional students of theology, that the origin 
of this error is to be sought for in the discussions of 
the Greek Fathers, and (at a later period) of the School- 
men, on the obscure and abysmal subject of the divine 
A-seity,* and the distinction between the 6i\r]{ia 
and the fiov\r\, that is, the Absolute Will, as the 
universal ground of all being, and the election and 

* A-se-itas = self-origination. Literally from-itselfaiess. 
— D. C. 

t2 



^76 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

purpose of God in the Personal Idea, as the Father. 
And this view would have allowed me to express what 
I believe to be the true import and Scriptural idea of 
Redemption in terms much more nearly resembling 
those used ordinarily by the Calvinistic divines, and 
with a conciliative show of coincidence. But this 
motive was outweighed by the reflection, that I could 
not rationally have expected to be understood by 
those, to whom I most wish to be intelligible : et si 
non vis intelligi, car vis legi? 

Not to countervene the purpose of a Synopsis, I 
have detached the confirmative or explanatory remarks 
from the answers to questions II. and III., and place 
them below as scholia. A single glance of the eye 
will enable the Reader to re-connect each with the 
sentence it is supposed to follow. 

SCHOLIUM TO ANS. IL 

Nevertheless, the fact or actual truth having been 
assured to us by revelation, it is not impossible, by 
stedfast meditation on the idea and supernatural 
character of a personal Will, for a mind spiritually 
disciplined to satisfy itself, that the redemptive Act 
supposes (and that our redemption is even negatively 
conceivable only on the supposition of) an Agent who 
can at once act on the Will as an exciting cause, 
quasi ah extra ; and in the Will, as the condition of 
its potential, and the ground of its actual, being. 

SCHOLIUM TO ANS. III. 

Where two subjects, that stand to each other in 
the relation of antithesis or contradistinction, are con- 
nected by a middle term common to both, the sense 
ti this middle term is indifferently determinable by 
either : the preferability of the one or the other in 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 277 

any given case being decided by the circumstance of 
our more frequent experience of, or greater familiarity 
with, the term in this connection. Thus, if I put 
hydrogen and oxygen gas, as opposite poles, the 
term gas is common to both ; and it is a matter of 
indifference by which of the two bodies I ascertain 
the sense of the term. But if, for the conjoint pur- 
poses of connection and contrast, I oppose transparent 
crystallised alumen to opaque derb or uncrystallised 
alumen ; — it may easily happen to be far more con- 
venient for me to shew the sense of the middle term, 
that is alumen, by a piece of pipe-clay than by a 
sapphire or ruby ; especially if I should be describing 
the beauty and preciousness of the latter to a peasant 
woman, or in a district where a ruby was a rarity 
which the fewest only had an opportunity of seeing. 
This is a plain rule of common logic directed in its 
application by common sense. 

Now let us apply this to the case in hand. The 
two opposites here are Flesh and Spirit : this in 
relation to Christ, that in relation to the w r orld ; and 
these two opposites are connected by the middle 
term, Birth, which is of course common to both. 
But for the same reason, as in the instance last- 
mentioned, the interpretation of the common term is 
to be ascertained from its known sense, in the more 
familiar connection — birth, namely, in relation to our 
natural life and to the organised body, by which we 
belong to the present world. Whatever the word 
signifiesin this connection, the same essentially in kind, 
though not in dignity and value, must be its signifi- 
cation in the other. How else could it be (what yet 
in this text it undeniably is), the punctum indifferens, 
or nota communis of the thesis, Flesh or the World, 
and the antithesis Spirit or Christ ? We might 
therefore, upon the supposition of a writer having 



378 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

been speaking of river-water in distinction from ram- 
water, as rationally pretend that in the latter phrase 
the term, water, was to be understood metaphorically, 
as that the w r ord, Birth, is a metaphor, and means 
only so and so in the Gospel according to St. John. 

There is, I am aware, a numerous and powerful 
party in our Church, so numerous and powerful as 
not seldom to be entitled the Church, who hold and 
publicly teach, that " Regeneration is only Baptism." 
Nay, the writer of the article on the lives of Scott 
and Newton, in our ablest and most respectable 
Review, is but one among many who do not hesitate 
to brand the contrary opinion as heterodoxy, and 
schismatical superstition.* I trust that I think as 
seriously as most men of the evil of schism ; but 
with every disposition to pay the utmost deference to 
an acknowledged majority, including, it is said, a very 
large proportion of the present dignitaries of our 
Church, I cannot but think it a sufficient reply, that 
if Regeneration means Baptism, Baptism must mean 
Regeneration; and this too, as Christ himself has 
declared, a regeneration in the Spirit. Now I would 
ask these divines this simple question : Do they 
believingly suppose a spiritual regenerative power 
and agency inhering in or* accompanying the sprink- 
ling of a few drops of water on an infant's face ? 
They cannot evade the question by saying that 
Baptism is a type or sign. For this would be to 
supplant their own assertion, that Regeneration means 
Baptism, by the contradictory admission, that Rege- 
neration is the significatum, of which Baptism is the 
significant. Unless, indeed, they would incur the 
absurdity of saying, that Regeneration is a type of 
Regeneration, and Baptism a type of itself — or that 

* See, Quart. Review, vol. xxxi. p. 26. — Ed. 






ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 279 

Baptism only means Baptism ! And this indeed is the 
plain consequence to which they might be driven, 
should they answer the above question in the negative. 

But if their answer be, "Yes ! we do suppose and 
believe this efficiency in the Baptismal act" — I have 
not another word to say. Only, perhaps, I might be 
permitted to express a hope that, for consistency's 
sake, they would speak less slightingly of the insuffla- 
tion, and extreme unction, used in the Romish Church; 
notwithstanding the not easily to be answered argu- 
ments of our Christian Mercury, the all-eloquent 
Jeremy Taylor, respecting the latter, — " which, since 
it is used when the man is above half dead, when he 
can exercise no act of understanding, it must needs 
be nothing. For no rational man can think, that 
any ceremony can make a spiritual change without a 
spiritual act of him that is to be changed ; nor that 
it can work by way of nature, or by charm, but morally 
and after the manner of reasonable creatures." * 

It is too obvious to require suggestion, that these 
words here quoted apply with yet greater force and 
propriety to the point in question ; as the babe is an 
unconscious subject, which the dying man need not 
be supposed to be. My avowed convictions respecting 
Regeneration, with the Spiritual Baptism, as its con- 
dition and initiative [Luke iii. 16; Matt.i. 7; Matt. 
Hi. 11), and of which the sacramental rite, the Bap- 
tism of John, was appointed by Christ to remain as 
the sign and figure ; and still more, perhaps, my 
belief respecting the mystery of the Eucharist, — 
concerning which I hold the same opinions as 
Bucer, f Peter Martyr, and presumably, Cranmer 
himself — these convictions and this belief will, I doubt 

* Dedicat. to Holy Dying. — Ed, 
f Strype — Cranmer, Append. — Ed. 



280 AIDS TO UEFLLCTION. 

not, be deemed by the orthodox de more Orotii, who 
improve the letter of Arminius with the spirit of 
Socinus, sufficient data to bring me in guilty of 
irrational and superstitious mysticism. But I abide 
by a maxim which I learned at an early period of my 
theological studies, from Benedict Spinoza. Where 
the alternative lies between the absurd and the 
incomprehensible, no wise man can be at a loss which 
of the two to prefer. To be called irrational, is a 
trifle : to be so, and in matters of religion, is far 
otherwise : and whether the irrationality consists in 
men's believing (that is, in having persuaded them- 
selves that they believe) against reason, or without 
reason, I have been early instructed to consider it as 
a sad and serious evil, pregnant with mischiefs, poli- 
tical and moral. And by none of my numerous 
instructors so impressively as by that great and shin- 
ing light of our Church in the sera of her intellectual 
splendor, Bishop Jeremy Taylor : from one of whose 
works,* and that of especial authority for the safety 
as well as for the importance of the principle, inas- 
much as it was written expressly ad popidum, I will 
now, both for its own intrinsic worth, and to relieve 
the attention, wearied, perhaps, by the length and 
argumentative character of the preceding discussion, 
interpose the following Aphorism. 

APHORISM XX. 

TAYLOK. 

Whatever is against right reason, that no faith can 
oblige us to believe. I or though reason is not the 
positive and affirmative measure of our faith, and our 
faith ought to be larger than (speculative) reason, 
and take something into her heart, that reason can 

* Wortby Communicant, c. iii. s. 5.-— Ed. 



ON SPIRITUAL 11ELIGION. 28! 

never take into her eye ; yet in all our creed there 
can be nothing against reason. If reason justly con- 
tradicts an article, it is not of the household of faith. 
In this there is no difficulty, hut that in practice we 
take care that we do not call that reason, which is 
not so.* For although reason is a right judge, f yet 
it ought not to pass sentence in an inquiry of faith, 
until all the information be brought in ; all that is 
within, and all that is without, all that is above, and 
all that is below ; all that concerns it in experience, 
and all that concerns it in act ; whatsoever is of per- 
tinent observation, and whatsoever is revealed. For 
else reason may argue very w T ell, and yet conclude 
falsely. It may conclude well in logic, and yet infer 
a false proposition in theology. J But when our 
judge is fully and truly informed in all that whence 
she is to make her judgment, we may safely follow 
her whithersoever she invites us. 

APHORISM XXI. 

TAYLOR. 

He that speaks against his own reason, speaks 
against his own conscience : and therefore it is cer- 
tain, no man serves God with a good conscience, who 
serves him against his reason. 

* See ante, pp. 141 and 166— Ed. 

f Which it could not be in respect of spiritual truths and 
objects super-sensuous, if it were the same with, and merely 
another name for the faculty judging according to sense — 
that is, the understanding, or (as Taylor most often calls it 
in distinction from reason) discourse (discursus sen facultas 
discursiva vei diacursoria). The reason, so instructed and so 
actuated as Taylor requires in the sentences immediately 
following, is what I have called the spirit. (See ante, pp. 
167—9.—^.) 

£ See ante, pp. 130-1.— Ed. 



%82 ' AIDS TO EEFLECTIOX. 



APHORISM XXII. 

TAYLOR. 

By the eye of reason through the telescope of 
faith, that is, revelation, we may see what without 
this telescope we could never have known to exist. 
But as one that shuts the eye hard, and with violence 
curls the eye-lid, forces a fantastic fire from the 
crystalline humour, and espies a light that never 
shines, and sees thousands of little fires that never 
burn; so is he that blinds the eye of reason, and pre- 
tends to see by an eye of faith. He makes little 
images of notions, and some atoms dance before him; 
but he is not guided by the light, nor instructed by 
the proposition, but sees like a man in his sleep. In 
no case can true reason and a right faith oppose each 
other. 

NOTE 

PREFATORY TO APHORISM XXIII. 

Less on my own account, than in the hope of 
fore-arming my youthful friends, I add one other 
transcript from Bishop Taylor, as from a writer to 
whose name no taint or suspicion of Calvinistic or 
schismatical tenets can attach, and for the purpose of 
softening the offence which, I cannot but foresee, 
will be taken at the positions asserted in the first 
paragraph of Aphorism VII p. 150, and the docu- 
mental proofs of the same in pp. 153 — 5 : and this 
by a formidable party composed of men ostensibly of 
the most dissimilar creeds, regular Church-divines, 
voted orthodox by a great majority of suffrages, and 
the so-called free-thinking Christians, and Unitarian 
divines. It is the former class alone that I wish to 
conciliate : so far at least as it may be done by 
removing the aggravation of novelty from the ofTeu- 



ON SP1IUTUAL KELIGIOX. Sbc 

sive article. And surely the simple re-assertion oi 
one of " the two great things," which Bishop Taylor 
could assert as a fact, — which, he took for granted, 
that no Christian would think of controverting, — 
should at least he controverted without bitterness by 
Ins successors in the Church. That which was per- 
fectly safe and orthodox in 1657, in the judgment of 
a devoted Royalist and Episcopalian, ought to be at 
most but a venial heterodoxy in 1825. For the rest, 
I am prepared to hear in answer — what has already 
been so often and with such theatrical effect dropped 
as an extinguisher on my arguments— the famous 
concluding period of the fourth book of Paley's 
Moral and Political Philosophy, declared by Dr. Parr 
to be the finest prose passage in English literature. 
Be it so. I bow to so great an authority. But if 
the learned doctor would impose it on me as the 
truest as well as the finest, or expect me to admire 
the logic equally with the rhetoric — d^tora/jiat — I 
start off. As I have been un-English enough to find 
in Pope's tomb-epigram on Sir Isaac Newton nothing 
better than a gross and wrongful falsehood, conveyed 
in an enormous and irreverent hyperbole ; so with 
regard to this passage in question, free as it is from 
all faults of taste, I have yet the hardihood to 
confess, that in the sense in which the words 
* discover' and ' prove,' are here used and intended, 
I am not convinced of the truth of the principle, (that 
he alone discovers who proves), and I question the 
correctness of the particular case, brought as instance 
and confirmation. I doubt the validity of the asser- 
tion as a general rule ; and I deny it, as applied to 
matters of faith, to the verities of religion, in the 
belief of which there must always be somewhat of 
moral election, " an act of the will in it as well as 
of the understanding, as much love in it as discursive 



284 AID3 TO REFLECTION. 

power. True Christian faith must have in it some- 
thing of in-evidence, something that must be made 
up by duty and by obedience." * — But most readily 
do I admit, and most fervently do I contend, that 
the miracles worked by Christ, both as miracles and 
as fulfilments of prophecy, both as signs and as 
wonders, made plain discovery, and gave unques- 
tionable proof, of his divine character and authority ; 
that they were to the whole Jewish nation true and 
appropriate evidences, that He was indeed come 
who had promised and declared to their forefathers. 
Behold your God will come with vengeance, even 
God with a recompense. He will come and save 
you.\ I receive them as proofs, therefore, of the 
truth of every word which he taught who was himself 
The Word ; and as sure evidences of the final victory 
over death and of the life to come, in that they were 
manifestations of Him, who said : I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life ! 

The obvious inference from the passage in ques- 
tion, if not its express import, is : Miracula experir 
menta crucis esse, quibus solis probandum erat, ho 
mines non, pecudum instar, omnino perituros esse. 
Now this doctrine I hold to be altogether alien from 
the spirit, and without authority in the letter, of 
Scripture. I can recall nothing in the history of 
human belief that should induce me, I find nothing 
in my own moral being that enables me, to under- 
stand it. I can, however, perfectly well understand, 
the readiness of those divines in hoc Paleii dictum 
ore pleno jurare, qui nihil aliud in toto Evangelio 
inoenire posse profitenlur. The most unqualified ad- 

* J. Taylor's Worthy Communicant. — Ed. 
t Isaiah xxxiv. compared with Matt. x. 34, and Luke xii. 
t9—M. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. Mbo 

miration of this superlative passage I find perfectly 
in character for those, who while Socinianism and 
Ultra- Socinianism are spreading like the roots of an 
elm, on and just below the surface, through the whole 
land, and here and there at least have even dipped 
under the garden-fence of the Church, and blunted 
the edge of the labourer's spade in the gayest 
parterres of our Baal-hamon, — who, — while heresies, 
to which the framers and compilers of our Liturgy, 
Homilies, and Articles would have refused the very 
name of Christianity, meet their eyes on the list of 
religious denominations for every city and large town 
throughout the kingdom — can yet congratulate them- 
selves with Dr. Paley, in his book on the Evidences.* 
that the rent has not reached the foundation ; — that 
is, that the corruption of man's will ; that the 
responsibility of man in any sense in which it is not 
equally predicable of dogs and horses ; that the 
divinity of our Lord, and even his pre-existence ; 
that sin, and redemption through the merits of 
Christ ; and grace ; and the especial aids of the 
Spirit; and the efficacy of prayer; and the sub- 
sistency of the Holy Ghost; may all be extruded 
without breach or rent in the essentials of Christian 
Faith ; — that a man may deny and renounce them 
all, and remain a fundamental Christian, notwith- 
standing ! But there are many who cannot keep up 
with Latitudinarians of such a stride ; and I trust 
that the majority of serious believers are in this 
predicament. Now for all these it would seem more 
in character to be of Bishop Taylor's opinion, that 
the belief in question is presupposed in a convert to 
the truth in Christ — but at all events not to circulate 
in the great whispering gallery of the religious Public 

* Conclusion, Part III. c. S. — Ed. 






280 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

suspicions and hard thoughts of those who, like 
myself, are of this opinion; who do not dare decry 
the religious instincts of humanity as a baseless 
dream ; who hold, that to excavate the ground under 
the faith of all mankind, is a very questionable 
method of building up our faith as Christians ; who 
fear, that instead of adding to, they should detract 
from, the honour of the Incarnate Word by dispa 
raging the light of the Word, that was in the begin- 
ning, and which lighteth every man ; and who, under 
these convictions, can tranquilly leave it to be dis- 
puted, in some new Dialogues in the shades, between 
the fathers of the Unitarian Church on the one 
side, and Maimonides, Moses Mendelssohn, and 
Lessing on the other, whether the famous passage 
in Paley does or does not contain the three dia- 
lectic flaws, petitio princijni, argumentum in circulo, 
and argumentum contra rem a premisso rem ipsam 
includente. 

Yes ! fervently do I contend, that to satisfy the 
understanding that there is a future state, was not 
the specific object of the Christian Dispensation ; and 
that neither the belief of a future state, nor the 
rationality of this belief, is the exclusive attribute of 
the Christian religion. An essential, a fundamental, 
article of all religion it is, and therefore of the 
Christian ; but otherwise than as in connexion with 
the salvation of mankind from the terrors of that 
state, among the essential articles peculiar to the 
Gospel Creed (those, for instance, by which it is 
contra-distinguished from the creed of a religious 
Jew) I do not place it. And before sentence is 
passed against me, as heterodox, on this ground, let 
not my judges forget who it was that assured us, that 
if a man did not believe in a state of retribution 
after death, previously and on other grounds, neither 



OX SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 287 

would lie believe, though a man should be raised from 
the dead. 

Again, I am questioned as to my proofs of a future 
state by men who are so far, and only so far, professed 
believers, that they admit a God and the existence of 
a law from God. I give them: and the questioners 
turn from me with a scoff or incredulous smile. Now 
should others of a less scanty creed infer the weak- 
ness of the reasons assigned by me from their failure 
iti convincing these men ; may I not remind them, 
who it was, to whom a similar question was proposed 
by men of the same class ? But at all events it will 
be enough for my own support to remember it ; and 
to know that He held such questioners, who could 
not find a sufficing proof of this great all-concerning 
verity in the words, The God of Abraham, the God 
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob unworthy of any 
other answer — men not to be satisfied by any proof 
— by any such proofs, at least, as are compatible 
with the ends and purposes of all religious convic- 
tion ; — by any proofs that would not destroy the faith 
they were intended to confirm, and reverse the whole 
character and quality of its effects and influences. 
But if, notwithstanding all here offered in defence of 
my opinion, I must still be adjudged heterodox and 
in error, — what can I say but that malo cum Platone 
errare, and take refuge behind the ample shield of 
Bishop Jeremy Taylor ? 



APHORISM XXIII. 

TAYLOR. 

In order to his own glory, and for the manifesta 
tion of his goodness, and that the accidents of this 
world might not overmuch trouble those good men 
who suffered evil things, God was pleased to do two 



288 AIDS Tn RKFLKCTION. 

great things. The one was : that he sent his Son 
into the world to take upon him our nature, that 
every man might submit to a necessity, from which 
God's own Son was not exempt, when it behoved even 
Christ to suffer, and so to enter into glory. The 
other great thing was : that God did not only by 
revelation and the sermons of the Prophets to his 
Church, but even to all mankind competently teach, 
and effectively persuade, that the soul of man does 
not die ; that though things were ill here, yet to the 
good who usually feel most of the evils of this life, 
they should end in honour and advantages. And 
therefore Cicero had reason on his side to conclude, 
that there is a time and place after this life, wherein 
the wicked shall be punished, and the virtuous 
rewarded ; when he considered that Orpheus and 
Socrates, and many others, just men and benefactors 
of mankind, were either slain or oppressed to death 
by evil men. And all these received not the promise. 
But when virtue made men poor, and free speaking 
of brave truths made the wise to lose their liberty : 
when an excellent life hastened an opprobrious death, 
and the obeying reason and our conscience lost us 
our lives, or at least all the means and conditions of 
enjoying them : it was but time to look about for 
another state of things where justice should rule, 
and virtue find her own portion. And therefore 
men cast out every line, and turned every stone, 
and tried every argument : and sometimes proved it 
well, and when they did not, yet they believed 
strongly ; and they were sure of the thing, when they 
were not sure of the argument.* 

* Sermon at the Funeral of Sir George Dalston. — Ed. 



ON' SriKITUAL REL1GTON 289 



A fact may be truly stated, and yet the cause or 
reason assigned for it mistaken, or inadequate, or 
pars pro toto, — one only or few of many that might 
or should have been adduced. The preceding 
Aphorism is an instance in point. The phenomenon 
here brought forward by the Bishop, as the ground 
and occasion of men's belief of a future state — 
namely, the frequent, not to say ordinary, dispropor 
tion between moral worth and worldly prosperity, 
must, indeed, at all times and in all countries of the 
civilised world have led the observant and reflecting 
few, the men of meditative habits and strong feelings 
of natural equity, to a nicer consideration of the 
current belief, whether instinctive or traditional. By 
forcing the soul in upon herself, this enigma of Saint 
and Sage from Job, David and Solomon, to Claudian 
and Boetius, — this perplexing disparity of success 
and desert, — has, I doubt not, with such men been th<? 
occasion of a steadier and more distinct consciousness 
of a something in man different in kind, and which 
not merely distinguishes but contra-distiuguish.es him 
from brute animals — at the same time that it has 
brought into closer view an enigma of yet harder 
solution — the fact, I mean, of a contradiction in the 
human being, of which no traces are observable else- 
where in animated or inanimate nature : a struggle 
of jarring impulses ; a mysterious diversity between 
the injunctions of the mind and the elections of 
the will ; and (last not least) the utter incom- 
mensurateness and the unsatisfying qualities of the 
things around us, that yet are the only objects which 
our senses discover, or our appetites require us to 
pursue : — hence for the finer and more contemplative 

u 



£90 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

spirits the ever-strengthening suspicion, that the two 
yhanomena must in some way or other stand in close 
connection with each other, and that the riddle of for- 
tune and circumstance is but a form or effluence of 
the riddle of man : and hence again, the persuasion, 
that the solution of both problems is to be sought for 
— hence the presentiment, that this solution will be 
found — in the contra-distinctive constituent of hu 
inanity, in the something of human nature which is 
exclusively human : — and — as the objects discover- 
able by the senses, as all the bodies and substances 
that we can touch, measure, and weigh, are either 
mere totals, the unity of which results from the parts 
and is of course only apparent ; or substances, the 
unity of action of which is owing to the nature or 
arrangement of the partible bodies which they actuate 
or set in motion, (steam for instance, in a steam 
engine); — as on the one hand the conditions and 
known or conceivable properties of all the objects 
which perish and utterly cease to be, together with 
all the properties which we ourselves have in com 
mon with these perishable things, differ in kind from 
the acts and properties peculiar to our humanity, so 
that the former cannot even be conceived, cannot 
without a contradiction in terms be predicated, of the 
proper and immediate subject of the latter — (for who 
would not smile at an ounce of truth, or a square foot 
of honour?) — and as, on the other hand, whatever 
things in visible nature have the character of perma- 
nence, and endure amid continual flux unchanged 
like a rainbow in a fast-flying shower, (for example, 
beauty, order, harmony, finality, law,) are all akin to 
the peculia of humanity, are all congenera of mind 
and will, without which indeed they would not only 
exist in vain, as pictures for moles, but actually not 
exist at all ; — hence, finally, the conclusion that the 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 291 

soul of man, as the subject of mind and wiU must 
likewise possess a principle of permanence, and be 
destined to endure. And were these grounds lighter 
than they are, yet as a small weight will make a scale 
descend, where there is nothing in the opposite scale, 
or painted weights, which have only an illusive relief 
or prominence ; so in the scale of immortality slight 
reasons are in effect weighty, and sufficient to deter- 
mine the judgment, there being no counter- weight, 
no reasons against them, and no facts in proof of the 
contrary, that would not prove equally well the cessa- 
tion of the eye on the removal or diffraction of 
the eye-glass, and the dissolution or incapacity of the 
musician on the fracture of his instrument or its 
strings. 

But though I agree with Taylor so far, as not to 
doubt that the misallotment of worldly goods and for- 
tunes was one principal occasion, exciting well-dis- 
posed and spiritually-awakened natures by reflections 
and reasonings, such as I have here supposed, to 
mature the presentiment of immortality into full con- 
sciousness, into a principle of action and a well-spring 
of strength and consolation ; I cannot concede to this 
circumstance any thing like the importance and extent 
of efficacy which he in this passage attributes to it. 
I am persuaded, that as the belief of all mankind, of 
all * tribes, and nations, and languages, in all ages, 

* I say all; for the accounts of one or two travelling 
French philosophers, professed atheists and partisans of infi- 
delity, respecting one or two African hordes, Caffres, and 
poor outlawed Boschmen, hunted out of their humanity, 
ought not to be regarded as exceptions. And as to Hearne's 
assertion respecting the non-existence and rejection of the 
belief among the Copper-Indians, it is not only hazarded on 
very weak and insufficient grounds, but he himself, in another 
part of his work, unconsciously supplies data, from whence 

u 2 



29*2 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and in all states of social union, it must be referred 
to far deeper grounds, common to man as man ; and 
that its fibres are to be traced to the tap-root of hu- 
manity. I have long entertained, and do not hesitate 
to avow, the conviction that the argument from uni- 
versality of belief urged by Barrow and others in 
proof of the first article of the Creed, is neither in 
point of fact — for two very different objects may be 
intended, and two or more diverse and even contra- 
dictory conceptions may be expressed, by the same 
name — nor in legitimacy of conclusion as strong and 
unexceptionable, as the argument from the same 
ground for the continuance of our personal being after 
death. The bull-calf butts with smooth and unarmed 
brow. Throughout animated nature, of each cha- 
racteristic organ and faculty there exists a pre- 
assurance, an instinctive and practical anticipation ; 
and no pre-assurance common to a whole species does 
in any instance prove delusive.* All other prophecies 
of nature have their exact fulfilment — in every other 
ingrafted word of promise, Nature is found true to 
her word ; and is it in her noblest creature, that she 
tells her first lie ? — (The Reader will, of course, 

the contrary may safely be concluded. Hearne, perhaps, 
put down his friend Motannabbi's Port- philosophy for the 
opinion of hi^ tribe ; and from his high appreciation of the 
moral character of this murderous gymnosophist, it might, I 
fear, be inferred, that Hearne himself was not the very 
person one would, of all others, have chosen for the purpose 
of instituting the inquiry. 

* See Baron Field's Letters from New South Wales. The 
poor natives, the lowest in the scale of humanity, evince no 
Bymptom of any religion, or the belief of any superior power 
as the maker of the world ; but yet have no doubt that the 
spirits of their ancestors survive in the form of porpoises, 
and mindful of their descendants, with imperishable affec- 
tion, drive the whales ashore for them to feast on. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 293 

understand, that I am here speaking in the assumed 
character of a mere naturalist, to whom no light of 
revelation had been vouchsafed ; one, who — 



-with gentle heart 



Had worshipp'd Nature in the hill and valley, 
Not knowing what he loved, but loved it all.) 

Whether, however, the introductory part of the 
Bishops argument is to be received with more or less 
qualification, the fact itself, as stated in the conclud- 
ing sentence of the Aphorism, remains unaffected, and 
is beyond exception true. 

If other argument and yet higher authority were 
required, I might refer to St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Romans, and to the Epistle to the Hebrews, which 
whether written by Paul, or, as Luther conjectured, 
by Apollos, is out of all doubt the work of an Apos- 
tolic man filled with the Holy Spirit, and composed 
while the Temple and the glories of the Temple wor- 
ship were yet in existence. Several of the Jewish 
and still Judaising converts had begun to vacillate in 
their faith, and to stumble at the stumbling-stone of 
the contrast between the pomp and splendour of the 
old Law, and the simplicity and humility of the 
Christian Church. To break this sensual charm, to 
unfascinate these bedazzled brethren, the writer to 
the Hebrews institutes a comparison between the two 
religions, and demonstrates the superior spiritual 
grandeur, the greater intrinsic worth and dignity of 
the religion of Christ. On the other hand, at Rome 
where the Jews formed a numerous, powerful, and 
privileged class (many of them, too, by their proselyt- 
ing zeal and frequent disputations with the priest3 
and philosophers trained and exercised polemics), the 
recently-founded Christian Church was, it appears, in 
greater danger from the reasonings of the Jewish 



294 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

doctors and even of its own Judaising members, res- 
pecting the use of the new revelation. Thus the 
object of the Epistle to the Hebrews was to prove the 
superiority of the Christian religion ; the object of 
the Epistle to the Romans to prove its necessity. 
Now there was one argument extremely well cal- 
culated to stagger a faith newly transplanted and still 
loose at its roots, and which if allowed, seemed to 
preclude the possibility of the Christian religion, as 
an especial and immediate revelation from God — on 
the high grounds, at least, on which the Apostle of 
the Gentiles placed it, and with the exclusive rights 
and superseding character, which he claimed for it. 
"You admit" (said they) "the divine origin and 
authority of the Law given to Moses, proclaimed 
with thunders and lightnings and the voice of the 
Most High heard by all the people from Mount Sinai, 
and introduced, enforced, and perpetuated by a series 
of the most stupendous miracles. Our religion, then, 
was given by God ; and can God give a perishable 
imperfect religion ? If not perishable, how can it 
have a successor? If perfect, how can it need to be 
superseded ? The entire argument is indeed com- 
prised in the latter attribute of our law. We know, 
from an authority which you yourselves acknowledge 
for divine, that our religion is perfect. He is the rock, 
and his work is perfect. (Deut. xxxii. 4.) If then 
the religion revealed by God himself to our forefathers 
is perfect, what need have we of another ? " — This 
objection, both from its importance and from its ex- 
treme plausibility, for the persons at least to whom it 
was addressed, required an answer in both Epistles. 
And accordingly the answer is included in the one 
(that to the Hebrews) and it is the especial purpose 
and main subject of the other. And how does the 
Apostle answer it? Suppose — and the case is not 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 295 

impossible * — a man of sense, who had studied the 
evidences of Priestley and Paley with Warburton's 
Divine Legation, but who should be a perfect stranger 
to the writings of St. Paul, and that I put this ques- 
tion to him : — " What do you think, will St. Paul's 
answer be?" "Nothing," he would reply, "can be 
more obvious. It is in vain, the Apostle will urge, 
that you bring your notions of probability and infe- 
rences from the arbitrary interpretation of a word in 
an absolute rather than a relative sense, to invali- 
date a known fact. It is a fact, that your religion is 
(in your sense of the word) not perfect : for it is de- 
ficient in one of the two essential constituents of all 
true religion, the belief of a future state on solid and 
sufficient grounds. Had the doctrine indeed been 
revealed, the stupendous miracles, which you most 
truly affirm to have accompanied and attested the 
first promulgation of your religion, would have 
supplied the requisite proof, But the doctrine was not 

* The case here supposed actually occurred in my own 
experience in the person of a Spanish refugee, of English 
parents, but from his tenth year resident in Spain, and bred 
in a family of wealthy, but ignorant and bigoted, Roman 
Catholics. In mature manhood he returned to England, 
disgusted with the conduct of the priests and monks, which 
had indeed for some years produced on his mind its so 
common effect among the better-informed natives of the 
South of Europe — a tendency to Deism. The results, how- 
ever, of the infidel system in France, with his opportunities 
of observing the effects of irreligion on the French officers in 
Spain, on the one hand ; and the undeniable moral and 
intellectual superiority of Protestant Britain on the other, 
had not been lost on him ; and here he began to think for 
himself and resolved to study the subject. He had gone 
through Bishop Warburton's Divine Legation, and Paley's 
Evidences ; but had never read the Gospels consecutively, 
and the Epistles not at all. 



206 AIDS ru INFLECTION. 

revealed ; and your belief of a future state rests on 
no solid grounds. You believe it as far as you believe 
it, and as many of you as profess this belief, without 
revelation, and without the only proper and sufficient 
evidence of its truth. Your religion, therefore, though 
of divine origin, is (if taken in disjunction from the 
new revelation, which I am commissioned to proclaim) 
but a religio dimidiata; and the main purpose, the 
proper character, and the paramount object of Christ's 
mission and miracles, is to supply the missing half 
by a clear discovery of a future state ; and (since ' he 
alone discovers who proves') by proving the truth of 
the doctrine now for the first time declared with the 
requisite authority, by the requisite, appropriate, and 
alone satisfactory evidences." 

But is this the Apostle's answer to the Jewish op- 
pugn ers, and the Judaising false brethren, of the 
Church of Christ? It is not the answer, it does not 
resemble the answer, returned by the Apostle. It is 
neither parallel nor corradial with the line of argu- 
ment in either of the two Epistles, or with auy one 
line ; but it is a chord that traverses them all, and 
only touches where it cuts across. In the Epistle to 
the Hebrews, the directly contrary position is re- 
peatedly asserted : and in the Epistle to the Romans, 
it is every where supposed. The death to which the 
Law sentenced all sinners (and which even the Gen- 
tiles without the revealed law had announced to them 
by their consciences, the judgment of God having been 
made known even to them) must be the same death, 
from which they were saved by the faith of the Son 
of God ; or the Apostle s reasoning would be sense- 
less, his antithesis a mere equivoque, a play on a word, 
quod idem sonat, aliad vult. Christ redeemed mankind 
from the curse of the law ; and we all know that it was 
not from temporal death, or the penalties and afflic- 






ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. Q97 

tions of the present li'fe, that believers have been 
redeemed. The Law of which the inspired sage of 
Tarsus is speaking, from which no man can plead 
excuse ; the Law, miraculously delivered in thunders 
from Mount Sinai, which was inscribed on tables of 
stone for the Jews, and written in the hearts of all 
men (Rom. xi. 15), the law holy and spiritual! What 
was the great point, of which this law, in its own 
name offered no solution : the mystery, which it left 
behind the veil, or in the cloudy tabernacle of types 
and figurative sacrifices ? Whether there was a judg- 
ment to come, and souls to suffer the dread sentence? 
Or was it not far rather — what are the means 
of escape ; where may grace be found and redemp- 
tion ? St. Paul says, the latter. The law brings 
condemnation : but the conscience-sentenced trans- 
gressors question, " What shall I do to be saved ? 
Who will intercede for me ?" it dismisses as beyond 
its jurisdiction and takes no cognisance thereof, save 
in prophetic murmurs or mute out-shadowings of 
mystic ordinances and sacrificial types. Not therefore, 
that there is a life to come, and a future state ; but 
what each individual soul may hope for itself therein ; 
and on what grounds : and that this state has been 
rendered an object of aspiration and fervent desire, 
and a source of thanksgiving and exceeding great 
joy ; and by whom, and through whom, and for w T hom, 
and by what means, and under what conditions — 
these are the peculiar and distinguishing fundamen- 
tals of the Christian faith. These are the revealed 
lights and obtained privileges of the Christian Dis- 
pensation. Not alone the knowledge of the boon, 
but the precious inestimable boon itself, is the grace 
and truth that came by Jesus Christ. I believe Moses, 
I believe Paul ; but I believe in Christ. 



298 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



APHORISM XXIV. 

ON BAPTISM. 

LEIGHTON. 

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching. 
— It will suffice for our present purpose, if by these* 
words we direct the attention to the origin, or at 
least first Scriptural record, of Baptism, and to the 
combineraent of preaching therewith ; their aspect 
each to the other, and their concurrence to one 
excellent end ; the word unfolding the sacrament, 
and the sacrament sealing the word ; the word as a 
light, informing and clearing the sense of the seal ; 
and this again as a seal, confirming and ratifying the 
truth of the word ; as you see some significant seals, 
or engraven signets, have a word about them express- 
ing their sense. 

But truly the word is a light, and the sacraments 
have in them of the same light illuminating them. 
This sacrament of Baptism, the ancients do particu- 
larly express by light. Yet are they both nothing 
but darkness to us, till the same light shine in our 
hearts ; for till then we are nothing but darkness 
ourselves ; and therefore the most luminous things 
are so to us. Noonday is as midnight to a blind 
man. And we see these ordinances, the word and 

* By certain Biblical philologists of the Teutonic school 
(men distinguished by learning, but still more charac- 
teristically by hardihood in conjecture, and who suppose the 
Gospels to have undergone several successive revisions and 
enlargements by, or under the authority of, the sacred 
historians) these words are contended to have been, in the 
first delivery, the common commencement of all the Gospels 
Kara crdpKa (that is, according to the flesh), in distinction from 
St. John's, or the Gospel Kara -rrvsvua (that is, according to 
the Spirit). 



ON SPIRITUAL HELIGION. 299 

the sacrament, without profit or comfort for the most 
part, because we have not that divine light within us. 
And we have it not, because we ask it not. 



COMMENT, 

Or an aid to reflection in the /owning 0/ a sound 
judgment respecting the purport and purpose 0/ the 
Baptismal rite, and a just appreciation 0/ its value 
and importance. 

A born and bred Baptist, and paternally descended 
from the old orthodox Non-conformists, and both in 
his own and in his fathers right a very dear friend of 
mine, had married a member of the National Church. 
In consequence of an anxious wish expressed by his 
lady for the Baptism of their first child, he solicited 
me to put him in possession of my views respecting 
this controversy ; though principally as to the degree 
of importance w 7 hich I attached to it. For as to 
the point itself, his natural prepossession in favour 
of the persuasion in which he was born had been 
confirmed by a conscientious examination of the ar- 
guments on both sides. As the comment on the 
preceding Aphorism, or rather as an expansion of its 
subject-matter, I will give the substance of the con- 
versation : and amply shall I have been remunerated, 
should it be read with the interest and satisfaction 
with which it was heard. More particularly, should 
any of my Readers find themselves under the same 
or similar circumstances. 

Our discussion is rendered shorter and more easy 
by our perfect agreement in certain preliminary points. 
We both disclaim alike every attempt to explain any 
thing into Scripture, and every attempt to explain 
any thing out of Scripture. Or if we regard either 



300 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

with a livelier aversion it is the latter, as being the 
more fashionable and prevalent. I mean the practice 
of both high and low Grotian divines to explain away 
positive assertions of Scripture on the pretext, that 
the literal sense is not agreeable to reason, that is, 
their particular reason. And inasmuch as (in the 
only right sense of the word) there is no such thing 
as a particular reason, they must, and in fact they do, 
mean that the literal sense is not accordant to their 
understanding, that is, to the notions which their 
understandings have been taught and accustomed to 
form in their school of philosophy. Thus a Platonist 
who should become a Christian would at once, even 
in texts susceptible of a different interpretation, re- 
cognise, because he would expect to find, several 
doctrines which the disciple of the Epicurean or me- 
chanic school will not receive on the most positive 
declarations of the divine word. And as we agree 
in the opinion that the Minimi-Jidian party err 
grievously in the latter point, so I must concede to 
you, that too many Paedo-baptists (assertors of Infant 
Baptism) have erred, though less grossly, in the 
former. I have, I confess, no eye for these smoke- 
like wreaths of inference, this ever-widening spiral 
ergo from the narrow aperture of perhaps a single 
text; or rather an interpretation forced into it by 
construing an idiomatic phrase in an artless narrative 
with the same absoluteness, as if it had formed part 
of a mathematical problem. I start back from these 
inverted pyramids, where the apex is the base. If I 
should inform any one that I had called at a friends 
house, but had found nobody at home, the family 
having all gone to the play ; and if he on the strength 
of this information should take occasion to asperse 
my friend's wife for uumotherly conduct in taking an 
infant six months old to a crowded theatre ; would 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 301 

you allow him to press on the words "nobody" and 
"all the family," in justification of the slander? 
Would you not tell him, that the words were to he 
interpreted by the nature of the subject, the purpose 
of the speaker, and their ordinary acceptation ; and 
that he must or might have known, that infants of 
that age would not be admitted into the theatre? 
Exactly so, with regard to the words, he and all his 
household. Had Baptism of infants at that early 
period of the Gospel been a known practice, or had 
this been previously demonstrated, then indeed the 
argument, that in all probability there were infants 
or young children in so large a family, would be no 
otherwise objectionable than as being superfluous, and 
a sort of anticlimax in logic. But if the words are 
cited as the proof, it would be a clear jwtitio principii, 
though there had been nothing else against it. But 
when we turn back to the Scriptures preceding the 
narrative, and find repentance and belief demanded 
as the terms and indispensable conditions of Baptism 
— then the case above imagined applies in its full 
force. Equally vain is the pretended analogy from 
Circumcision, which was no Sacrament at all; but 
the means and mark of national distinction. In the 
first instance it was, doubtless, a privilege or mark 
of superior rank conferred on the descendants of 
Abraham. In the Patriarchal times this rite was 
confined (the first governments being theocracies) to 
the priesthood, who were set apart to that office from 
their birth. At a later period this token of the 
premier class was extended to kings. And thus, 
when it was re-ordained by Moses for the whole 
Jewish nation, it was at the time said — Ye are all 
priests and kings ; ye are a consecrated people. In 
addition to this, or rather in aid of this, Circumcision 
was intended to distinguish the Jews by some 



log aids to keflection. 

indelible sign : and it was no less necessary that Jewish 
children should be recognisable as Jews than Jewish 
adults — not to mention the greater safety of the rite 
in infancy. Nor was it ever pretended that any 
grace was conferred with it, or that the rite was sig- 
nificant of any inward or spiritual operation. In 
short, an unprejudiced and competent reader need 
only peruse the first thirty- three paragraphs of the 
eighteenth section of Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying; 
and then compare with these the remainder of the 
section added by him after the Restoration : those, 
namely, in which he attempts to overthrow his own 
arguments. I had almost said, affects : for such is 
the feebleness, and so palpable the sophistry, of his 
answers, that I find it difficult to imagine that Taylor 
himself could have been satisfied with them. The 
only plausible arguments apply with equal force to 
Baptist and Paedo-baptist ; and would prove, if they 
proved any thing, that both, were wrong, and the 
Quakers only in the right. 

Now, in the first place, it is obvious, that nothing 
conclusive can be drawn from the silence of the New 
Testament respecting a practice, which, if we suppose 
it already in use, must yet, from the character of the 
first converts, have been of comparatively rare oc- 
currence ; and which, from the predominant and more 
concerning objects and functions of the Apostolic 
writers (1 Cor. i. 17.) was not likely to have been 
mentioned otherwise than incidentally, and very pro- 
bably therefore might not have occurred to them to 
mention at all. But, secondly, admitting that the 
practice was introduced at a later period than that in 
which the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles 
were composed : I should yet be fully satisfied, that 
the Church exercised herein a sound* discretion. 

* That every the least permissible form and ordinance, 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGTON. 308 

On either supposition, therefore, it is never without 
regret that I see a divine of our Church attempting 
to erect forts on a position so evidently commanded 
by the stronghold of his antagonists. I dread the 
use which the Socinians may make of their example, 
and the Papists of their failure. Let me not, how- 
ever, deceive you. (The Reader understands, that I 
suppose myself conversing with a Baptist.) I am 
of opinion, that the divines on your side are charge- 
able with a far more grievous mistake, that of 
giving a carnal and Judaising interpretation to the 
various Gospel texts in which the terms, baptism and 
baptise, occur, contrary to the express and earnest 
admonitions of the Apostle Paul. And this I say 
without in the least retracting my former concession, 
that the texts appealed to, as commanding or 
authorising Infant Baptism, are all without exception / 
made to bear a sense neither contained nor deducible : 
and likewise that (historically considered) there exists 

which at different times it might be expedient for the 
Church to enact, are pre-enacted in the Xew Testament; 
and that whatever is not to be found there, ought to be 
allowed nowhere — this has been asserted. But that it has 
been proved, or even rendered plausible ; or that the tenet 
is not to be placed among the revulsionary results of the 
Scripture-slighting will-worship of the Romish Church ; it 
will be more sincere to say I disbelieve, than that I doubt. 
It was chiefly, if not exclusively, in reference to the extra- 
vagances built on this tenet, that the great Selden ventured 
to declare, that the words, Scrutamini Scripturas, had set the 
world in an uproar. 

Extremes appear to generate each other ; but if we look 
steadily, there will most often be found some common error, 
that produces both as its positive and negative poles. Thus 
superstitions go by pairs, like the two Hungarian sisters, 
always quarrelling and inveterately averse, but yet joined 
at the trunk. 



304 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



wo sufficient positive evidence that the Baptism of 
infants was instituted by the Apostles in the practice 
of the Apostolic age.* 

Lastly, we both coincide in the full conviction, that 
it is neither the outward ceremony of Baptism, under 
any form or circumstances, nor any other ceremony, 
but such a faith in Christ as tends to produce a con- 
fortuity to his holy doctrines and example in heart 
and life, and which faith is itself a declared mean 
and condition of our partaking of his spiritual body, 
and of being clothed upon with his righteousness, — 
that properly makes us Christians, and can alone be 
enjoined as an article of faith necessary to salvation, 
so that the denial thereof may be denounced as a 
damnable heresy. In the strictest sense of essential, 
this alone is the essential in Christianity, that the 
same spirit should be growing in us which was in the 
fulness of all perfection in Christ Jesus. Whatever 
else is named essential, is such because, and only as 
far as, it is instrumental to this, or evidently implied 



* More than this I do not consider as necessary for the 
argument. And as to Robinson's assertions in his History of 
Baptism, that Infant Baptism did not commence till the 
time of Cyprian, who, condemning it as a general practice, 
allowed it in particular cases by a dispensation of charity : 
and that it did not actually become the ordinary rule of the 
.Church, till Augustine, in the fever of his Anti-Pelagian 
dispute, had introduced the Calvinistic interpretation of 
Original Sin, and the dire state of infants dying unbaptised — 
I am so far from acceding to them, that I reject the whole 
statement as rash, and not only unwarranted by the autho- 
rities he cites, but unanswerably confuted by Baxter, Wall, 
and many other learned Psedo-baptists before and since the 
publication of his work. I confine myself to the assertion — 
not that Infant Baptism was not — but that there exist no suf- 
ficient proofs that it was — the practice of the Apostolic age. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 30 J 

herein. If the Baptists hold the visible rite to be 
indispensable to salvation, with what terror must they 
not regard every disease that befalls their children 
between youth and infancy ! But if they are saved 
by the faith of the parent, then the outward rite is 
not essential to salvation, otherwise than as the omis- 
sion should arise from a spirit of disobedience : and 
in this case it is the cause not the effect, the wilful 
and unbaptised heart, not the unbaptising hand, that 
perils it. And surely it looks very like an inconsis- 
tency to admit the vicarious faith of the parents, and 
the therein implied promise, that the child shall be 
Christianly bred up, and as much as in them lies 
prepared for the communion of saints — to admit this, 
as safe and sufficient in their own instance, and yet 
to denounce the same belief and practice as hazardous 
and unavailing in the Church — the same, I say, 
essentially, and only differing from their own by 
the presence of two or three Christian friends as 
additional securities, and by the promise being 
expressed ! 

But you, my filial friend ! have studied Christ 
under a better teacher — the spirit of adoption, even 
the spirit that was in Paul, and which still speaks to 
us out of his writings. You remember and admire 
the saying of an old divine, that a ceremony duly 
instituted is a chain of gold around the neck of faith • 
but if in the wish to make it co-essential and consub- 
stantial, you draw it closer and closer, it may strangle 
the faith it was meant to deck and designate. You 
are not so unretenti^e a scholar as to have forgotten 
the pateris et auro of your Virgil : or if you were, 
you are not so inconsistent a reasoner as to translate 
the Hebraism, spirit and fire in one place by spiritual 
fire, and yet refuse to translate water and spirit by 
spiritual water in another place ; or if, as I myself 

x 



30G AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

think, the different position marks a different sense, 
yet that the former must be ejusdem generis with 
the latter — the water of repentance, reformation 
in conduct ; and the spirit that which purifies 
the inmost principle of action, as fire purges the 
metal substantially, and not cleansing the surface 
only. 

But in this instance, it will be said, the ceremony, 
the outward and visible sign, is a Scripture ordinance, 
I will not reply that the Romish priest says the same 
of the anointing of the sick with oil and the imposi- 
tion of hands. No, my answer is : that this is a very 
sufficient reason for the continued observance of a 
ceremonial rite so derived and sanctioned, even 
though its own beauty, simplicity, and natural signi- 
ficancy had pleaded less strongly in its behalf. But 
it is no reason why the Church should forget that 
the perpetuation of a thing does not alter the nature 
of the thing, and that a ceremony to be perpetuated 
is to be perpetuated as a ceremony. It is no reason 
why, knowing and experiencing even in the majority 
of her own members the proneness of the human 
mind to * superstition, the Church might not right- 
fully and piously adopt the measures best calculated 
to check this tendency, and to correct the abuse to 
which it had led in any particular rite. But of 
superstitious notions respecting the Baptismal cere- 
mony, and of abuse resulting, the instances were 
flagrant and notorious. Such, for instance, was the 
frequent deferring of the Baptismal rite to a late 
period of life, and even to the deathbed, in the belief 

* Let me be permitted to repeat and apply the note in a 
former page. Superstition may be denned as superstantium 
(cujusmodi sunt ceremonice et signa externa quce, nisi in signi 
ficando nihili sunt et pcene nihil) substantiation 



ON SPIRITUAL KELIGION. 307 

that the mystic water would cleanse the baptised 
person from all sin, and (if he died immediately after 
the performance of the ceremony,) send him pure and 
spotless into the other world. 

Nor is this all. The preventive remedy applied by 
the Church is legitimated as well as additionally 
recommended by the following consideration. Where 
a ceremony answered and was intended to answer 
several purposes, which purposes at its first institu 
tion were blended in respect of the time, but which 
afterwards by change of circumstances (as when, for 
instance, a large and ever-increasing proportion of 
the members of the Church, or those who at least 
bore the Christian name, were of Christian parents) 
were necessarily dis-united — then either the Church 
has no power or authority delegated to her (which is 
shifting the ground of controversy)* or she must be 
authorised to choose and determine, to which of the 
several purposes the ceremony should be attached. 
Now one of the purposes of Baptism w 7 as — the 
making it publicly manifest, first j what individuals 
were to be regarded by the World (Phil. ii. 15.) as 
belonging to the visible communion of Christians- 
inasmuch as by their demeanour and apparent con- 
dition, the general estimation of the city set en a hill 
and not to be hid (Matth. v. 14.) could not but be 
affected— the city that even in the midst of a crooked 
and perverse nation was bound not only to give no 
cause, but by all innocent means, to prevent every 
occasion, of rebuke. Secondly, to mark out, for the 
Church itself, those that were entitled to that espe- 
cial dearness, that watchful and disciplinary love and 
loving-kindness, which over and above the affections 
and duties of philanthropy, and universal charity, 
Christ himself had enjoined, and with an emphasis 
and in a form significant of its great and especial 

x2 



308 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

importance, — A new commandment I give unto you, 
that ye love one another. By a charity wide as sun 
shine, and comprehending the whole human race, 
the body of Christians was to be placed in contrast 
with the proverbial misanthropy and bigotry of the 
Jewish Church and people: while yet they were to 
be distinguished and known to all men, by the 
peculiar love and affection displayed by them towards 
the members of their own community ; thus exhibit- 
ing the intensity of sectarian attachment, yet by the 
no less notorious and exemplary practice of the duties 
of universal benevolence, secured from the charge so 
commonly brought against it, of being narrow and 
exclusive. " How kind these Christians are to the 
poor and afflicted, without distinction of religion or 
country ; but how they love each other ! " 

Now combine with this the consideration before 
urged — the duty, I mean, and necessity of checking 
the superstitious abuse of the Baptismal rite : and I 
then ask, with confidence, in what way could the 
Church have exercised a sound discretion more wisely, 
piously, or effectively, than by fixing, from among the 
several ends and purposes of Baptism, the outward 
ceremony to the purposes here mentioned ? How 
could the great body of Christians be more plainly 
instructed as to the true nature of all outward ordi- 
nances ? What can be conceived better calculated 
to prevent the ceremony from being regarded as 
other and more than a ceremony, if not the adminis- 
tration of the same on an object (yea, a dear and 
precious object) of spiritual duties, though the con- 
scious subject of spiritual operations and graces only 
by anticipation and in hope ; — a subject unconscious 
as a flower of the dew falling on it, or the early rain, 
and thus emblematic of the myriads who (as in our 
Indian empire, and henceforward, I trust, in Africa) 



OX SPlItlTUAL KELIGION. 300 

are temporally and even morally benefited by the 
outward existence of Christianity, though as yet 
ignorant of its saving truth? And yet, on the other 
hand, what more reverential than the application o' 
this the common initiatory rite of the East sanc- 
tioned and appropriated by Christ — its application, 
I say, to the very subjects, whom he himself com- 
manded to be brought to him — the children in arms, 
respecting whom Jesus was much displeased with his 
disciples, who had rebuked those that brought them ? 
What more expressive of the true character of that 
originant yet generic stain, from which the Son of 
God, by his mysterious Incarnation and Agony and 
Death and Resurrection, and by the Baptism of the 
Spirit, came to cleanse the children of Adam, than 
{he exhibition of the outward element to infants, free 
from and incapable of crime, in whom the evil prin- 
ciple was present only as potential being, and whose 
outward semblance represented the kingdom of 
Heaven ? And can it — to a man, who would hold 
himself deserving of anathema maranatha (1 Cor. 
xvi. 22.) if he did not love the Lord Jesus —can it be 
nothing to such a man, that the introduction and 
commendation of a new 7 inmate, a new spiritual ward, 
to the assembled brethren in Christ ( — and this, as 
I have shown above, was one purpose of the Bap- 
tismal ceremony — ) does in the Baptism of an infant 
recall our Lord's own presentation in the Temple on 
the eighth day after his birth ? Add to all these 
considerations the known fact of the frequent exposure 
and the general light regard of infants, at the time 
when Infant Baptism is by the Baptists supposed to 
have been first ruled by the Catholic Church, not 
overlooking the humane and charitable motives, that 
influenced Cyprians decision in its favour. And then 
make present to your imagination, and meditatively 



510 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

contemplate the still continuing tendency, the pro* 
fitable, the beautiful effects of this ordinance, now 
and for so many centuries back, on the great mass of 
the population throughout Christendom — the soften- 
ing, elevating exercise of faith, and the conquest over 
the senses, while in the form of a helpless crying 
babe the presence, and the unutterable worth and 
value, of an immortal being made capable of ever- 
lasting bliss are solemnly proclaimed and carried 
home to the mind and heart of the hearers and 
beholders ! Nor will you forget the probable 
influence on the future education of the child, the 
opportunity of instructing and impressing the friends, 
relatives, and parents in their best and most docile 
mood. These are, indeed, the mollia tempora fandi. 
It is true, that by an unforeseen accident, and 
through the propensity of all zealots to caricature 
partial truth into total falsehood — it is too true, that 
a tree the very contrary in quality of that shown to 
Moses (Eccod. xv. 25.) was afterwards cast into the 
sweet waters from this fountain, and made them like 
the waters of Marah, too bitter to be drunk. I 
allude to the Pelagian controversy, the perversion 
of the article »of Original Sin by Augustine, and the 
frightful conclusions which this dnrus pater infantum 
drew from the article thus perverted. It is not, how- 
ever, to the predecessors of this African, whoever 
they were that authorised Paedo-Baptism, and at 
whatever period it first became general — it is not to 
the Church at the time being, that these consequences 
$re justly imputable. She had done her best to pre- 
clude every superstition, by allowing, in urgent 
eases, any and every adult, man and woman, to ad- 
minister the ceremonial part, the outward rite of 
Baptism : but reserving to the highest functionary of 
the Church (even to the exclusion of the co-presbyters) 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 31 i 

the more proper and spiritual purpose, namely, the 
declaration of repentance and belief, the free choice 
of Christ as his Lord, and the open profession of the 
Christian title by an individual in his own name and 
by his own deliberate act. This office of religion, the 
essentially moral and spiritual nature of which could 
not be mistaken, this most solemn office the Bishop 
alone was to perform. 

Thus — as soon as the purposes of the ceremouia. 
rite were by change of circumstances divided, that is, 
took place at different periods of the believer's life — 
to the outward purposes, where the effect was to be 
produced on the consciousness of others, the Church 
continued to affix the outward rite ; while to the sub- 
stantial and spiritual purpose, where the effect was to 
be produced on the individual's own mind, she gave 
it beseeming dignity by an ordinance not figurative, 
but standing in the direct cause and relation of means 
to the end. 

In fine, there are two great purposes to be 
answered, each having its own subordinate purposes 
and desirable consequences. The Church answers 
both, the Baptists one only. If, nevertheless, you 
would still prefer the union of the Baptismal rite 
with the Confirmation, and that the presentation of 
infants to the assembled Church had formed a sepa- 
rate institution, avowedly prospective — I answer, first, 
that such for a long time and to a late period was 
my own judgment. But even then it seemed to me 
a point, as to which an indifference would be less in- 
consistent in a lover of truth, than a zeal to separation 
in a professed lover of peace. And secondly, I would 
revert to the history of the Reformation, and the ca- 
lamitous accident of the Peasants' War : when the 
poor ignorant multitude, driven frantic by the into- 
lerable oppressions of their feudal lords, rehearsed all 



312 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the outrages that were acted in our own times by the 
Parisian populace headed by Dan ton, Marat, and 
Robespierre ; and on the same outrageous principles, 
and in assertion of the same rights of brutes to the 
subversion of all the duties of men. In our times, 
most fortunately for the interest of religion and mo- 
rality, or of their prudential substitutes at least, the 
name of Jacobin was everywhere associated with that 
of Atheist and Infidel. Or rather, Jacobinism and 
Infidelity were the two heads of the revolutionary 
Geryon — connatural misgrowths of the same monster- 
trunk. In the German convulsion, on the contrary, 
by a mere but most unfortunate accident, the same 
code of Caliban jurisprudence, the same sensual and 
murderous excesses, were connected with the name 
of Anabaptist. The abolition of magistracy, commu- 
nity of goods, the right of plunder, polygamy, and 
whatever else was fanatical, were comprised in the 
word Anabaptism. It is not to be imagined that the 
Fathers of the Reformation could, without a miracu- 
lous influence, have taken up the question of Infant 
Baptism with the requisite calmness and freedom of 
spirit. It is not to be wished that they should have 
'entered on the discussion. Nay, I will go farther. 
Unless the abolition of Infant Baptism can be shown 
\o be involved in some fundamental article of faith, 
unless the practice could be proved fatal or immi- 
nently perilous to salvation, the Reformers would not 
have been justified in exposing the yet tender and 
struggling cause of Protestantism to such certain 
and. violent prejudices as this innovation would have 
excited. Nothing less than the whole substance and 
efficacy of the Gospel Faith was the prize, which they 
had wrestled for and won ; but won from enemies 
still in the field, and on the watch to retake, at all 
costs, the sacred treasure, and consign it once again 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 313 

to darkness and oblivion. If there be a time for all 
things, this was not the time for an innovation that 
would and must have been followed by the triumph 
of the enemies of Scriptural Christianity, and the 
alienation of the governments that had espoused and 
protected it. 

Remember I say this on the supposition of the 
question's not being what you do not pretend it to 
be, an essential of the Faith by which we are saved. 
But should it likewise be conceded that it is a dis- 
putable point — and that in point of fact it is and has 
been disputed by divines whom no pious Christian of 
any denomination will deny to have been faithful and 
eminent servants of Christ; should it, I say, be like- 
wise conceded that the question of Infant Baptism is 
a point, on which two Christians, who perhaps differ 
on this point only, may differ without giving just 
ground for impeaching the piety or competence of 
either ; in this case I am obliged to infer that the 
person who at any time can regard this difference as 
singly warranting a separation from a religious com- 
munity, must think of schism under another point of 
view than that in which I have been taught to con- 
template it by St. Paul in his Epistles to the Corin- 
thians. 

Let me add a few woras on a diversity of doctrine 
closely connected with this : — the opinions of Doctors 
Mant and D'Oyly as opposed to those of the (so 
called) Evangelical clergy. " The Church of Eng- 
land (says Wall*) does not require assent and con- 

* Conference between Two Men that had Doubts about 
Infant Baptism. By W. Wall, Author of the History of 
Infant Baptism, and Vicar of Shoreham, in Kent. A very 
sensible little tract, and written in an excellent spirit ; but it 
failed, I confess, in satisfying my mind as to the existence of 



814 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

sent" to either opinion " in order to lay communion. 1 ' 
But I will suppose the person a minister : but mi- 

any decisive proofs or documents of Infant Baptism having 
been an Apostolic usage, or specially intended in any part of 
the New Testament ; though deducible generally from many 
passages, and in perfect accordance with the spirit of the 
whole. 

A mighty wrestler in the cause of spiritual religion and 
Gospel morality, in whom more than in any other contem- 
porary I seem to see the spirit of Luther revived, expressed 
to me his doubts whether we have a right to deny that an 
infant is capable of a spiritual influence. To such a man I 
could not feel justified in returning an answer ex tempore, or 
without having first submitted my convictions to a fresh 
revisal. I owe him, however, a deliberate answer ; and take 
this opportunity of discharging the debt. 

The objection supposes and assumes the very point which 
is denied, or at least disputed — namely, that Infant Baptism 
is specially enjoined in the Scriptures. If an express passage 
to this purport had existed in the New Testament — the 
other passages, which evidently imply a spiritual operation 
under the condition of a preceding spiritual act on the part 
of the person baptised, remaining as now — then indeed, as 
the only way of removing the apparent contradiction, it 
might be allowable to call on the Anti-psedobaptist to prove 
the negative — namely, that an infant a week old is not a 
subject capable or susceptible of spiritual agency. And, vice 
versa, should it be made known to us, that infants are not 
without reflection and self-consciousness — then, doubtless, we 
should be entitled to infer that they were capable of a 
spiritual operation, and consequently of that which is signified 
in the Baptismal rite administered to adults. But what does 
this prove for those who not only cannot show, but who do 
not themselves profess to believe, the self-consciousness of a 
new-born babe, but who rest the defence of Infant Baptism on 
the assertion, that God was pleased to affix the performance 
of this rite to his offer of salvation, as the indispensable, 
though arbitrary, condition of the infant's salvability? — As 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 315 

nister of a Church which has expressly disclaimed 
all pretence to infallibility; a Church which in the 
construction of its Liturgy and Articles is known to 
have worded certain passages for the purpose of ren- 
dering them subscribable by both A and Z — that is, 
the opposite parties as to the points in controversy. 
I suppose this person's convictions those of Z, and 
that out of five passages there are three, the more 
natural and obvious sense of which is in his favor ; 
and two of which, though not absolutely precluding 
a different sense, yet the more probable interpreta- 
tion is in favor of A, that is, of those who do not 
consider the Baptism of an infant as prospective, but 
hold it to be an opus operans et in prcesenti. Then I 
say, that if such a person regards these two sentences 
or single passages as obliging or warranting him to 
abandon the flock entrusted to his charge, and either 
to join such as are the avowed enemies of the Church 
on the double ground of its particular constitution 
and of its being an establishment, or to set up a 
separate church for himself — I cannot avoid the con- 
clusion, that either his conscience is morbidly sensi 
tive in one speck to the exhaustion of the sensibility 

kings, in former ages, when they confeiTed lands in per- 
petuity, would sometimes, as the condition of the tenure, 
exact from the beneficiary a hawk, or some trifling ceremony 
as the putting on or off of their sandals, or whatever royal 
caprice, or the whim of the moment, might suggest. But 
you, honored Irving, are as little disposed as I am, to favor 
such doctrine ! 

Friend pure of heart and fervent ! we have learnt 
A different lore. We may not thus profane 
The idea and name of Him whose absolute will 
Is reason, truth supreme, essential order.* 



* [See Church and State, p. 1524, note. 3d edit.— Ed.] 



310 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

iu a far larger portion : or that he must have dis- 
covered some mode, beyond the reach of my con- 
jectural powers, of interpreting the Scriptures enu- 
merated in the following excerpt from the popular 
Tract before cited, in which the writer expresses 
an opinion to which I assent with my whole heart, 
namely : 

" That all Christians in the world that hold the 
same fundamentals ought to make one Church, 
though differing in lesser opinions : and that the sin, 
the mischief, and danger to the souls of men, that 
divide into those many sects and parties among us, 
does (for the most of them) consist not so much in 
the opinions themselves, as in their dividing and 
separating for them. And in support of this tenet, 
I will refer you to some plain places of Scripture, 
which if you please now to peruse, I will be silent 
the while. See what our Saviour himself says, 
John x. 16. John xvi. 11. And what the primitive 
Christians practised, Acts ii. 46, and iv. 32. And 
what St. Paul says, 1 Cor. i. 10, 11, 12, and 2, 3, 4. 
also the whole 12th chapter: Ejoh. ii. 17, &c. to the 
end. Where the Jewish and Gentile Christians are 
showed to be one body, one household, one temple 
fitly framed together : and these were of different 
opinions in several matters. Likewise chap. iii. 6. 
iv. 1 — 13. Phil. ii. 1, 2. where he uses the most 
solemn adjurations to this purpose. But I would 
more especially recommend to you the reading of 
Gal v. 20, 21. Phil. iii. 15, 16, the 14th chapter 
to the Romans, and part of the 15th, to verse 7, and 
also Rom. xv. 17. 

" Are not these passages plain, full, and earnest? 
Do you find any of the controverted points to be 
determined by Scripture in words nigh so plain or 
pathetic?" 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 317 

If I had addressed the ministers recently seceded, 
I would have first proved from Scripture and reason 
the justness of their doctrines concerning Baptism 
and conversion. 2. I would have shown, that even 
in respect of the Prayer-hook and Homilies of the 
Church of England, taken as a whole, their opponents 
were comparatively as ill off as themselves, if not 
worse. 3. That the few mistakes or inconvenient 
phrases of the Baptismal Service did not impose on 
the conscience the necessity of resigning the pastoral 
office. 4. That even if they did, this would by no 
means justify schism from lay-membership : or else 
there could be no schism except from an immaculate 
and infallible Church. Now, as our Articles have 
declared that no Church is or ever was such, it would 
follow that there is no such sin as that of schism, 
that is, that St. Paul wrote falsely or idly. 5. That 
the escape through the channel of dissent is from the 
frying-pan to the fire — or, to use a less worn and 
vulgar simile, the escape of a leech from a glass-jar 
of water into the naked and open air. But never, 
never, would I in one breath allow my Church to be 
fallible, and in the next contend for her absolute 
freedom from all error — never confine inspiration 
and perfect truth to the Scriptures, and then scold 
for the perfect truth of each and every word in the 
Prayer-book. Enough for me, if in my heart of 
hearts, free from all fear of man and all lust of pre- 
ferment, I believe (as I do) the Church of England 
to be the most Apostolic Church ; that its doctrines 
vmd ceremonies contain nothing dangerous to righte- 
jusness or salvation ; and that the imperfections in 
its Liturgy are spots indeed, but spots on the sun, 
which impede neither its light nor its heat, so as to 
prevent the good seed from growing in a good soil, 
and producing fruits of redemption. 



318 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

[* " 8 May, 1828. I see the necessity of greatly 
expanding and clearing up the chapter on Baptism 
in the Aids to Reflection, and of proving the sub- 
stantial accordance of my scheme with that of our 
Church. 

11 I still say that an assertion of an act of the Spirit 
in time — that at the moment of the uttering of the 
words, I baptise thee in the name, &c, it may be 
declared, * Now the Spirit begins to act' — is false in 
philosophy, and contrary to Scripture, and that our 
Church Service needs no such hypothesis. Further, 
I still say that the communication of the Spirit as of 
a power in principle not yet possessed to an uncon- 
scious agent by human ministry, is without precedent 
or warrant in Scripture ; — that the nature of the Spirit 
communicated by the Apostles by imposition of hands, 
is a very difficult question ; and that the reasons for 
supposing it to be certain miraculous gifts of the 
Spirit, peculiar to the first age of Christianity, and 
during the formation of the Church, are neither few 
nor insignificant. 

" Further, I say that in itself it might bb indif- 
ferent, whether, the outward Rite of Baptism formed 
the initiation into the Baptismal period, ei? to 
(fxDTL&LV, or the finale and coronation : — that from 
the necessity of the circumstances, that is, the non- 
existence of the Church as the sponsor and security 
for the undertaking of the enlightening process, and 
the adult age of the persons to be baptised, the 
latter was, and could not but be, the practice of the 

* The paragraphs which the Editor has, after some con ■ 
sideration, thought it advisable to print within brackets in 
the text of this edition of the Aids to Reflection, are taken 
from one of the deeply interesting Note Books, kept by 
Mr. Coleridge with great care during the later years of his 
life.— £(2. 



ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 319 

Apostolic age : — but that in after times both the com- 
mencement and the close were ritually solemnised ; — 
in the first, the Church conferring all the privileges 
of Christianity ; — in the second, the donee acknow- 
ledging the gift, and declaring his consent to the 
conditions, and the Church confirming the gift and re- 
ceiving the individual as, fjbr] TTecftooTLcrpiivov, [already 
enlightened] and no longer h t& (fxoTC&aOai, as one 
being enlightened. Now it is notorious that during 
the first two centuries, the catechumens generally 
were not baptised, and that their baptism was im- 
mediately followed by admission to the Eucharist. 
And such was the force of custom, that when the 
baptism of infants became the rule of the Church, 
the Eucharist was administered to them ; — a practice 
which greatly obscured, if it did not destroy, the 
beautiful harmony and distinct significancy of the two 
Kites as symbolic, — the one of the Light of the Word, 
the other of the Life ; and therefore with great reason 
was the practice discontinued. 

" Observe, I do not deny — God forbid ! the pos- 
sibility or the reality of the influence of the Spirit on 
the soul of the infant. His first smile bespeaks a 
reason — the Light from the Life of the Word — as 
already existent; and where the Word is, there. will 
the Spirit act. Still less do I think lightly of the 
graces which the child receives, as a living part of the 
Church, and whatever flows from the Communion of 
Saints, and the Treptxcoprja-is of the Spirit. Our 
Church most wisely and scrip turally precludes all the 
mischievous fanaticism of moments of conversion. 
Excopt the time when the Church receives the subject 
into her own body, and co-organises the person there- 
with, no time can be specified for the Spirit's descent 
and in-coming. For the operations of the Spirit are as 
little referable to Time as to Space : but in reference 



320 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

to our principles of conduct toward, and judgment 
concerning, our neighbours, the Church declares, that 
before the time of the Baptism there is no authority 
for asserting, — and that since the time there is no 
authority for denying, — that gift and regenerate pre- 
sence of the Holy Spirit, promised by an especial 
covenant to the members of Christ's mystical body : 
and consequently, no just pretence for expecting or 
requiring another new initiation or birth into the state 
of Grace."] 



CONCLUSION. 

— ♦ — 

I am not so ignorant of the temper and tendency 
of the age in which I live, as either to be unprepared 
for the sort of remarks which the literal interpreta- 
tion of the Evangelist will call forth, or to attempt 
an answer to them. Visionary ravings, obsolete 
whimsies, transcendental trash, and the like, I leave 
to pass at the price current among those who are 
willing to receive abusive phrases as substitutes for 
argument. Should any suborner of anonymous criti- 
cism have engaged some literary bravo or buffoon 
beforehand to vilify this Work, as in former instances, 
I would give a friendly hint to the operative critic, 
that he may compile an excellent article for the occa- 
sion, and with very little trouble, out of Warburtons 
Tract on Grace and the Spirit, and the Preface to the 
same. There is, however, one objection, which will 
so often be heard from men, whose talents and re< 
puted moderation must give a weight to their words, 
that I owe it both to my own character and to the 
interests of my readers, not to leave it unnoticed. 
The charge will probably be worded in this way : — • 
There is nothing new in all this. (As if novelty were 
any merit in questions of revealed religion !) It is 
mysticism, all taken out of William Law, after he 
had lost his senses in brooding over the visions of a 
delirious German cobbler, Jacob Bohme. 

Of poor Jacob Bohme I have delivered my senti- 
ments at large in another work. Those who have 

x 



322 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

condescended to look into his writings must know 
that his characteristic errors are : first, the mistaking 
the accidents and peculiarities of his own overwrought 
mind for realities and modes of thinking common to 
all minds : and secondly, the confusion of Nature, 
that is, the active powers communicated to matter, 
with God the Creator. And if the same persons 
have done more than merely looked into the present 
Volume, they must have seen, that to eradicate, and, 
if possible, to preclude both the one and the other, 
stands prominent among its avowed objects. 

Of William Law's Works I am acquainted with the 
Serious Call ; and besides this I remember to have 
read a small Tract on Prayer, if I mistake not, as I 
easily may, it being at least six-and-twenty years 
since I saw it. He may in this or in other tracts 
have quoted the same passages from the fourth Gospel 
which I have done. But surely this affords no pre- 
sumption that my conclusions are the same with his ; 
still less, that they are drawn from the same pre- 
misses ; and least of all, that they were adopted from 
his writings. Whether Law has used the phrase, 
assimilation by faith, I know not ; but I know that I 
should expose myself to a just charge of an idle 
parade of my reading, if I recapitulated the tenth 
part of the authors, ancient and modern, Romish and 
Reformed, from Law to Clemens Alexandrinus and 
Irenasus, in whose works the same phrase occurs in 
the same sense. And after all, on such a subject, 
how worse than childish is the whole dispute ! 

Is the fourth Gospel authentic ? And is the inter- 
pretation I have given true or false ? These are the 
only questions which a wise man would put, or a 
Christian be anxious to answer. I not only believe it 
to be the true sense of the texts ; but I assert that 
it is the only true, rational, and even tolerable sense. 



CONCLUSION. 323 

And this position alone I conceive myself interested 
in defending. I have studied with an open and fear- 
less spirit the attempts of sundry learned critics of 
the Continent to invalidate the authenticity of this 
Gospel, before and since Eichorn's Vindication. The 
result has been a clearer assurance and (as far as 
this was possible) a yet deeper conviction of the 
genuineness of all the writings which the Church has 
attributed to this Apostle. That those, who have 
formed an opposite conclusion, should object to the 
use of expressions which they had ranked among the 
most obvious marks of spuriousness, follows as a 
matter of course. But that men, who with a clear 
and cloudless assent receive the sixth chapter of this 
Gospel as a faithful, nay, inspired record of an actual 
discourse, should take offence at the repetition of 
words which the Redeemer himself, in the perfect 
foreknowledge that they would confirm the disbeliev- 
ing, alienate the unsteadfast, and transcend the 
present capacity even of his own elect, had chosen as 
the most appropriate ; and which, after the most 
decisive proofs that they were misinterpreted by the 
greater number of his hearers, and not understood 
by any, he nevertheless repeated with stronger em- 
phasis and without comment as the only appropriate 
symbols of the great truth he was declaring, and to 
realise which iyzvero aap£ ; * — that in their own 

* Of which our he was made flesh, is a very inadequate 
translation. The Church of England in this as in other 
doctrinal points has preserved the golden mean between the 
superstitious reverence of the Romanists, and the avowed 
contempt of the Sectarians, for the writings of the Fathers, 
and the authority and unimpeached traditions of the Church 
during the first three or four centuries. And how, con- 
sistently with this honourable characteristic of our Church, 
a minister of the same could, on the Sacramentary scheme 



324 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

discourses these men should hang hack from all 
express reference to these words, as if they were afraid 
or ashamed of them, though the earliest recorded 
ceremonies and liturgical forms of the primitive 
Church are absolutely inexplicable, except in con- 
nection with this discourse, and with the nrysterious 
and spiritual, not allegorical and merely ethical, 
import of the same ; and though this import is 
solemnly and in the most unequivocal terms asserted 
and taught by their own Church, even in her Cate- 
chism, or compendium of doctrines necessary for all 
her members ; — this I may perhaps understand ; 
but this I am not able to vindicate or excuse. 

There is, however, one opprobrious phrase which 
it may be profitable for my younger readers that I 
should explain, namely, Mysticism. And for this 
purpose I will quote a sentence or two from a dialogue 
which, had my prescribed limits permitted, I should 
have attached to the present work ; but which with 
an Essay * on the Church, as instituted by Christ, 
and as an establishment of the State, and a series of 
Letters f on the right and the superstitious use and 
estimation of the Bible, will hereafter appear by 
themselves, should the reception given to the present 
Volume encourage or permit the publication. 

now in fashion, return even a plausible answer to Arnauld's 
great work on Transubstantiation, (not without reason 
the boast of the Romish Church, ) exceeds my powers of 
coDjecture. 

* See the Church and State, 3rd edit. — Ed. 

T" See Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. 1840. — Ed. 



CONCLUSION. 325 



MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM. 

Antinous. — "What do you call Mysticism? And 
do you use the word in a good or in a bad sense ? " 

Nous. — " In the latter only ; as far, at least, as we 
are now concerned with it. W x hen a man refers to 
inward feelings and experiences of which mankind 
at large are not conscious as evidences of the truth 
of any opinion — such a man I call a Mystic : and the 
grounding of any theory or belief on accidents and 
anomalies of individual sensations or fancies, and the 
use of peculiar terms invented, or perverted from 
their ordinary significations, for the purpose of ex- 
pressing these idiosyncracies and pretended facts of 
interior consciousness, I name Mysticism. Where 
the error consists simply in the Mystic's attaching 
to these anomalies of his individual temperament the 
character of reality, and in receiving them as per- 
manent truths, having a subsistence in the Divine 
Mind, though revealed to himself alone ; but enter- 
tains this persuasion without demanding or expecting 
the same faith in his neighbours — I should regard it 
as a species of enthusiasm, always indeed to be depre- 
cated, but yet capable of co-existing with many 
excellent qualities both of head and heart. But 
when the Mystic, by ambition or still meaner passions, 
or (as sometimes is the case) by an uneasy and self- 
doubting state of mind which seeks confirmation in 
outward sympathy, is led to impose his faith, as a 
duty, on mankind generally : and when with such 
views he asserts that the same experiences would be 
vouchsafed, the same truths revealed to every man, 
but for his secret wickedness and unholy will; — such 
a Mystic is a fanatic, and in certain states of the 
public mind, a dangerous member of society. And 



326 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

most so in those ages and countries in which fanatics 
of elder standing are allowed to persecute the fresh 
competitor. For under these predicaments, Mys- 
ticism, though originating in the singularities of an 
individual nature, and therefore essentially anomalous, 
»is nevertheless highly contagious. It is apt to collect 
a swarm and cluster circwn fana, around the new 
fane ; and therefore merits the name of fanaticism, 
or as the Germans say, Schiuarmerey, that is, swarm- 
making." 

We will return to the harmless species, the enthu- 
siastic Mystics ; — a species that may again be subdi- 
vided into two ranks. And it will not be other than 
germane to the subject, if I endeavour to describe 
them in a sort of allegory or parable. Let us 
imagine a poor pilgrim benighted in a wilderness or 
desart, and pursuing his way in the starless dark with 
a lantern in his hand. Chance or his happy genius 
leads him to an oasis or natural garden, such as in 
the creations of my youthful fancy I supposed Enos,* 

* Will the Keader forgive me if I attempt at once to 
illustrate and relieve the subject by annexing the opening 
lines of a poem composed in the same year in which I wrote 
the Ancient Mariner and the first Book of Christabel'? 

" Encinctur'd with a twine of leaves, 
That leafy twine his only dress ! 
A lovely boy was plucking fruits 
In a moonlight wilderness. 
The moon was bright, the air was free, 
And fruits and flowers together grew 
On many a shrub and many a tree : 
And all put on a gentle hue, 
Hanging in the shadowy air 
Like a picture 'rich and rare. 
It was a climate where, they say, 
The night is more beloved than day, 



CONCLUSION. 327 

the child of Cain, to have found. x\nd here, hungry 
and thirsty, the way-wearied man rests at a fountain ; 
and the taper of his lantern throws its light on an 
over-shadowing tree, a boss of snow-white blossoms, 
through which the green and growing fruits peeped, 
and the ripe golden fruitage glowed. Deep, vivid, 
and faithful are the impressions, which the lovely 
imagery comprised within the scanty circle of light 
makes and leaves on his memory. But scarcely has 
he eaten of the fruits and drunk of the fountain, ere 
scared by the roar and howl from the desart he hur- 
ries forward : and as he passes with hasty steps 
through grove and glade, shadows and imperfect 
beholdings and vivid fragments of things distinctly 
seen blend with the past and present shapings of his 
brain. Fancy modifies sight. His dreams transfer 
their forms to real objects ; and these lend a substance 
and an outness to his dreams. Apparitions greet 
him ; and when at a distance from this enchanted 
land, and on a different track, the dawn of day dis- 
closes to him a caravan, a troop of his fellowmen, his 
memory, which is itself half fancy, is interpolated 
afresh by every attempt to recall, connect, and piece 
out his recollections. His narration is received as 
a madman's tale. He shrinks from the rude laugh 
aud contemptuous sneer, and retires into himself. 
Yet the craving for sympathy, strong in proportion to 
the intensity of his convictions, impels him to un- 
bosom himself to abstract auditors ; and the poor 

But who that beauteous boy beguiled, 

That beauteous boy, to linger here ? 

Alone, by night, a little child, 

In place so silent and so wild — 

Has he no friend, no loving mother near V* 

Wanderings of Cain. 
Poet. Works, II. p. 100.- Ed ? 



328 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

quietist becomes a penman, and, all too poorly stocked 
for the writer's trade, he borrows his phrases and 
figures from the only writings to which he has had 
access, the sacred books of his religion. And thus 
I shadow out the enthusiast Mystic of the first sort ; 
at the head of which stands the illuminated Teutonic 
theosopher and shoemaker, honest Jacob Bohme, 
born near Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia, in the 17th of 
our Elizabeth s reign, and who died in the 22nd of 
her successors. 

To delineate a Mystic of the second and higher 
order, we need only endow our pilgrim with equal 
gifts of nature, but these developed and displayed by 
all the aids and arts of education and favourable 
fortune. He is on his way to the Mecca of his 
ancestral and national faith, with a well guarded and 
numerous procession of merchants and fellow-pil- 
grims, on the established track. At the close of day 
the caravan has halted : the full moon rises on the 
desart : and he strays forth alone, out of sight but to 
no unsafe distance ; and chance leads him, too, to 
the same oasis or islet of verdure on the sea of 
sand. He wanders at leisure in its maze of beauty 
and sweetness, and thrids his way through the 
odorous and flowering thickets into open spots of 
greenery, and discovers statues and memorial cha- 
racters, grottos, and refreshing caves. But the 
moon-shine, the imaginative poesy of Nature, spreads 
its soft shadowy charm over all, conceals distances, 
and magnifies heights, and modifies relations ; and 
fills up vacuities with its own whiteness, counter- 
feiting substance ; and where the dense shadows lie, 
makes solidity imitate hollowness ; and gives to all 
objects a tender visionary hue and softening. Inter- 
pret the moonlight and the shadows as the peculiar 
genius and sensibility of the individual's own spirit ; 



CONCLUSION. 32& 

and here you have the other sort ; a Mystic, an 
enthusiast of a nobler breed — a Fenelon. But the 
residentiary, or the frequent visitor of the favoured 
spot, who has scanned its beauties by steady day- 
light, and mastered its true proportions and linea- 
ments, he will discover that both pilgrims have indeed 
been there. He will know, that the delightful 
dream, which the latter tells, is a dream of truth ; 
and that, even in the bewildered tale of the former 
there is truth mingled with the dream. 

But the source, the spring-head, of the charges 
which I anticipate, lies deep. Materialism, conscious 
and avowed Materialism, is in ill repute : and a con- 
fessed Materialist therefore a rare character. But if 
the ftuth be ascertained by the fruits : if the predo- 
minant, though most often unsuspected, persuasion 
is to be learnt from the influences, under which the 
thoughts and affections of the man move and take 
their direction : I must reverse the position. Only 
not all are Materialists. Except a few individuals, 
and those for the most part of a single sect : every 
one who calls himself a Christian, holds himself to 
have a soul as well as a body. He distinguishes mind 
from matter, the subject of his consciousness from the 
objects of the same. The former is his mind : and 
he says, it is immaterial. But though subject and 
substance are words of kindred roots, nay, little less 
than equivalent terms, yet nevertheless it is exclu- 
sively to sensible objects, to bodies, to modifications 
of matter, that he habitually attaches the attributes 
of reality, of substance. Beal and tangible, substan- 
tial and material, are synonymes for him. He never 
indeed asks himself, what he means by mind ? But 
if he did, and tasked himselt to return an honest 
answer — as to w T hat, at least, he had hitherto meant 
by it — he would find, that he had described it by 



330 AIDS TO EEFLECTION. 

negatives, as the opposite of bodies, for example, as 
a somewhat opposed to solidity, to visibility, and the 
like, as if you could abstract the capacity of a vessel, 
and conceive of it as a somewhat by itself, and then 
give to the emptiness the properties of containing, 
holding, being entered, and so forth. In short, 
though the proposition would perhaps be angrily 
denied in words, yet in fact he thinks of his mind, as a 
property, or accident of a something else, that he 
calls a soul or spirit : though the very same difficul- 
ties must recur, the moment he should attempt to 
establish the difference. For either this soul or 
spirit is nothing but a thinner body, a finer mass of 
matter ; or the attribute of self-subsistency vanishes 
from the soul on the same grounds, on which it is 
refused to the mind. 

I am persuaded, however, that the dogmatism of 
the Corpuscular School, though it still exerts an 
influence on men's notions and phrases, has received 
a mortal blow from the increasingly dynamic spirit of 
the physical sciences now highest in public estima- 
tion. And it may safely be predicted that the results 
will extend beyond the intention of those, who are 
gradually effecting this revolution. It is not Che- 
mistry alone that will be indebted to the genius of 
Davy, Oersted, and their compeers : and not as the 
founder of physiology and philosophic anatomy alone, 
will mankind love and revere the name of John 
Hunter. These men have not only taught, they 
have compelled us to admit, that the immediate 
objects of our senses, or rather the grounds of the 
visibility and tangibility of all objects of sense, bear 
the same relation and similar proportion to the intel- 
ligible object — that is, to the object which we actually 
mean when we say, " It is such or such a thing," or 
" I have seen this or that," — as the paper, ink, and 



CONCLUSION. 331 

differently combined straight and curved lines of an 
edition of Homer bear to what we understand by the 
words, Iliad and Odyssey. Nay, nothing would be 
more easy than so to construct the paper, ink, painted 
capitals, and the like, of a printed disquisition on the 
eye, or the muscles and cellular texture (that is, the 
flesh) of the human body, as to bring together every 
one of the sensible and ponderable stuffs or ele- 
ments, that are sensuously perceived in the eye 
itself, or in the flesh itself. Carbon and nitrogen, 
oxygen and hydrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, and one 
or two metals and metallic bases, constitute the 
whole. It cannot be these therefore, that we mean 
by an eye, by our body. But perhaps it may be a 
particular combination of these ? Now here comes a 
question : In this term do you or do you not include 
the principle, the operating cause, of the combination? 
If not, then detach this eye from the body. Look 
steadily at it — as it might lie on the marble slab of a 
dissecting room. Say it were the eye of a murderer, 
a Bellingham : or the eye of a murdered patriot, a 
Sidney ! — Behold it, handle it, with its various ac- 
companiments or constituent parts, of tendon, liga- 
ment, membrane, blood-vessel, gland, humours ; its 
nerves of sense, of sensation, and of motion. Alas ! 
all these names, like that of the organ itself, are so 
many anachronisms, figures of speech, to express that 
which has been ; as when the guide points with his 
finger to a heap of stones, and tells the traveller, 
" That is Babylon, or Persepolis." — Is this cold jelly 
the light of the body t Is this the micranthrojpos in 
the marvellous microcosm ? Is this what you mean 
when you well describe the eye as the telescope and 
the mirror of the soul, the seat and agent of an almost 
magical power? 

Pursue the same inquisition with every other part 



832 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

of the body, whether integral or simply ingredient ; 
and let a Berzelius or a Hatchett be your interpreter, 
and demonstrate to you what it is that in each actually 
meets your senses. And when you have heard the 
scanty catalogue, ask yourself if these are indeed the 
living flesh, the blood of life ? Or not far rather — 1 
speak of what, as a man of common sense, you really 
do, not what, as a philosopher, you ought to believe — ■ 
is it not, I say, far rather the distinct and indivi- 
dualised agency that by the given combinations utters 
and bespeaks its presence ? Justly and with strictest 
propriety of language may I say, speaks. It is to the 
coarseness of our senses, or rather to the defect and 
limitation of our percipient faculty, that the visible 
object appears the same even for a moment. The 
characters which I am now shaping on this paper, 
abide. Not only the forms remain the same, but the 
particles of the colouring stuff are fixed, and, for an 
indefinite period at least, remain the same. But the 
particles that constitute the size, the visibility of an 
organic structure, are in perpetual flux. They are to 
the combining and constitutive power as the pulses 
of air to the voice of a discourser; or of one who 
sings a roundelay. The same words maybe repeated; 
but in each second of time the articulated air hath 
passed away, and each act of articulation appropriates 
and gives momentary form to a new and other por- 
tion. As the column of blue smoke from a cottage 
chimney in the breathless summer noon, or the 
steadfast-seeming cloud on the edge point of a hill in 
the driving air-current, which momently condensed 
and recomposed is the common phantom of a thousand 
successors ; — such is the flesh, which our bodily eyes 
transmit to us ; which our palates taste ; which our 
hands touch. 

But perhaps the material particles possess this 



CONCLUSION. 383 

combining power by inherent reciprocal attractions, 
repulsions, and elective affinities ; and are themselves 
the joint artists of their own combinations ? I will 
not reply, though well I might, that this would be to 
solve one problem by another, and merely to shift 
the mystery. It will be sufficient to remind the 
thoughtful querist, that even herein consists the es- 
sential difference, the contra-distinction, of an organ 
from a machine; that not only the characteristic 
shape is evolved from the invisible central power, but 
the material mass itself is acquired by assimilation. 
The germinal power of the plant transmutes the fixed 
air and the elementary base of water into grass or 
leaves ; and on these the organific principle in the ox 
or the elephant exercises an alchemy still more stu- 
pendous. As the unseen agency weaves its magic 
eddies, the foliage becomes indifferently the bone and 
its marrow, the pulpy brain, or the solid ivory. That 
what you see is blood, is flesh, is itself the work, or 
shall I say, the translucence, of the invisible energy, 
which soon surrenders or abandons them to inferior 
powers (for there is no pause nor chasm in the activi- 
ties of nature) which repeat a similar metamorphosis 
according to their kind ; — these -are not fancies, con- 
jectures, or even hypotheses, but facts ; to deny which 
is impossible, not to reflect on which is ignominious. 
And we need only reflect on them with a calm and 
silent spirit to learn the utter emptiness and un- 
meaningness of the vaunted Mechanico-corpuscular 
philosophy, with both its twins, Materialism on the 
one hand, and Idealism, rightlier named subjective 
Idolism, on the other: the one obtruding on us a 
world of spectres and apparitions ; the other a mazy 
dream. 

Let the Mechanic or Corpuscular scheme, which 
in its absoluteness and strict consistency was first 



334 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

introduced by Des Cartes, be judged by the results 
By its fruits shall it be known. 

In order to submit the various phenomena of 
moving bodies to geometrical construction, we are 
under the necessity of abstracting from corporeal 
substance all its positive properties, and obliged to 
consider bodies as differing from equal portions of 
space * only by figure and mobility. And as a fiction 

* Such is the conception of body in Des Cartes' own 
system. Body is everywhere confounded with matter, and 
might in the Cartesian sense be denned space or extension, 
with the attribute of visibility. As Des Cartes at the same 
time zealously asserted the existence of intelligential beings, 
the reality and independent self-subsistence of the soul, 
Berkeleyanism or Spinosism was the immediate and neces- 
sary consequence. Assume a plurality of self-subsisting 
souls, and we have Berkeleyanism ; assume one only (unam 
et unicam substantiam), and you have Spinosism, that is, the 
assertion of one infinite Self-subsistent, with the two attri- 
butes of thinking and appearing. Cogitatio infinita sine 
centra, et omniformis apjoaritio. How far the Newtonian 
vis inertia (interpreted any otherwise than as an arbitrary 
term = x y x, to represent the unknown but necessary sup- 
plement or integration of the Cartesian notion of body) has 
patched up the flaw, I leave for more competent judges to 
decide. But should any one of my readers feel an interest 
in the speculative principles of natural philosophy, and 
should be master of the German language, I warmly recom- 
mend for his perusal the earliest known publication of the 
great founder of the Critical Philosophy, (written in the 
twenty-second year of his age !) on the then eager contro- 
versy between the Leibnitzian and the French and English 
Mathematicians, respecting the living forces — Gedanken von 
der wahren Schatzung der lebendigen Krafte : 1747 — in which 
Kant demonstrates the right reasoning to be with the latter; 
but the truth of the fact, the evidence of experience, with 
the former ; and gives the explanation, namely : body, or 
corporeal nature, is something else and more than geome- 



CONCLUSION. 335 

of science, it would be difficult to overvalue this in- 
vention. It possesses the same merits in relation to 
geometry that the atomic theory has in relation to 
algebraic calculus. But in contempt of common 
sense, and in direct opposition to the express decla 
rations of the inspired historian {Gen. i.), and to the 
tone and spirit of the Scriptures throughout, Des 
Cartes propounded it as truth of fact : and instead of 
a world created and filled with productive forces by 
the almighty Fiat, left a lifeless machine whirled 
about by the dust of its own grinding : as if death 
could come from the living fountain of life ; nothing 
ness and phantom from the plenitude of reality, the 
absoluteness of creative will ! 

Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! let me be deemed mad by 
all men, if such be thy ordinance : but, ! from such 
madness save and preserve me, my God ! 

When, however, after a short interval, the genius 
of Kepler, expanded and organised in the soul of 
Newton, and there (if I may hazard so bold an ex- 
pression) refining itself into an almost celestial clear- 
ness, had expelled the Cartesian vortices ; * then the 

trical extension, even with the addition of a vis. inertice. And 
Leibnitz, with the Bernouillis, erred in the attempt to 
demonstrate geometrically a problem not susceptible of 
geometrical construction. — This tract, with the succeeding 
Himmels-System, may with propriety be placed, after the 
Princijpia of Newton, among the striking instances of early 
genius ; and as the first product of the dynamic philosophy 
in the physical sciences, from the time, at least, of Giordano 
Bruno, whom the idolators burned for an Atheist, at Rome, 
in the year 1600. — [See The Friend, vol. i. p. 151 — 155. 
3rd edit.— Ed.] 

* For Newton's own doubtfully suggested ether or most 
subtle fluid, as the ground and immediate agent in the 
phanomena of universal gravitation, was- either not adopted 



ooQ AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

necessity of an active power, of positive forces present 
in the material universe, forced itself on the convic- 
tion. For as a law without a lawgiver is a mere 
abstraction ; so a law without an agent to realise it, 
a constitution without an abiding executive, is, in 
fact, not a law, but an idea. In the profound emblem 
of the great tragic poet, it is the powerless Prometheus 
fixed on a barren rock. And what was the result ? 
How was this necessity provided for ? God himself — 
my hand trembles as I write ! Rather, then, let me 
employ the word, which the religious feeling, in its 
perplexity, suggested as the substitute — the Deity 
itself was declared to be the real agent, the actual 
gravitating power ! The law and the lawgiver were 
identified. God (says Dr. Priestley) not only does, 
but is every thing. Jupiter est quodcunque vides. 
And thus a system, which commenced by excluding 
all life and immanent activity from the visible 
universe, and evacuating the natural world of all 
nature, ended by substituting the Deity, and reducing 
the Creator to a mere anima mundi : a scheme that 
has no advantage over Spinosism but its inconsistency, 
which does indeed make it suit a certain order of in- 
tellects, who, like the pleuronectce for flat fish) in 

or soon abandoned by his disciples ; not only as introducing, 
against his own canons of right reasoning, an ens imagina- 
Hum into physical science, a suffiction in the place of a 
legitimate supposition; but because the substance (if assumed 
to exist) must itself form part of the problem which it was 
meant to solve. Meantime, Leibnitz's pre-established har- 
mony, which originated in Spinosa, found no acceptance ; 
and, lastly, the notion of a corpuscular substance, with 
properties put into it, like a pincushion hidden by the pins, 
could pass with the unthinking only for anything more than 
a confession of ignorance, or technical terms expressing a 
hiatus of scientific insight. 



CONCLUSION. 337 

ichthyology which have both eyes on the same side, 
never see but half of a subject at one time, and for- 
getting the one before they get to the other, are sure 
not to detect any inconsistency between them. 

And what has been the consequence ? An in- 
creasing unwillingness to contemplate the Supreme 
Being in his personal attributes ; and thence a dis- 
taste to all the peculiar doctrines of the Christian 
Faith, the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of 
God, and Redemption. The young and ardent, ever 
too apt to mistake the inward triumph in the detec- 
tion of error for a positive love of truth, are among 
the first and most frequent victims to this epidemic 
fastidium. Alas ! even the sincerest seekers after 
light are not safe from the contagion. Some have I 
known, constitutionally religious — I speak feelingly ; 
for I speak of that which for a brief period was my 
own state — who under this unhealthful influence 
have been so estranged from the heavenly Father, 
the living God, as even to shrink from the personal 
pronouns as applied to the Deity. But many do I 
know, and yearly meet with, in whom a false and 
sickly taste co-operates with the prevailing fashion : 
many, who find the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, far too real, too substantial ; who feel it more 
in harmony with their indefinite sensations 

To worship Nature in the hill and valley, 
Not knowing what they love : — 

and (to use the language, but not the sense or purpose, 
of the great poet of our age) would fain substitute for 
the Jehovah of their Bible 

A sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean and the living air ; 

z 



338 AIDS TO [REFLECTION." 

A motion and a spirit, that impels 

All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 

And rolls through all things ! Wordsworth. 

And this from having heen educated to understand 
the Divine Omnipresence in any sense rather than 
the only safe and legitimate one, the presence of all 
things to God ! 

Be it, however, that the number of such men is 
comparatively small ; and be it (as in fact it often is) 
but a brief stage, a transitional state, in the process 
of intellectual growth. Yet among a numerous and 
increasing class of the higher and middle ranks, there 
is an inward withdrawing from the life and personal 
being of God, a turning of the thoughts exclusively 
to the so-called physical attributes, to the omnipresence 
in the counterfeit form of ubiquity, to the immensity, 
the infinity, the immutability; — the attributes of 
space with a notion of power as their substratum, — a 
Fate, in short, not a moral Creator and Governor. 
Let intelligence be imagined, and wherein does the 
conception of God differ essentially from that of 
gravitation (conceived as the cause of gravity) in the 
understanding of those, who represent the Deity not 
only as a necessary but as a necessitated being; 
those, for whom justice is but a scheme of general 
laws ; and holiness, and the divine hatred of sin, yea, 
and sin itself, are words without meaning, or accom- 
modations to a rude and barbarous race ? Hence, I 
more than fear the prevailing taste for books of 
natural theology, physico-theology, demonstrations of 
S-od from Nature, evidences of Christianity, and the 
like. Evidences of Christianity ! I am weary of the 
word. Make a man feel the want of it ; rouse him if you 
can to the self-knowledge of his need of it ; and you 
may safely trust it to its own evidence, —remembering 



CONCLUSION. 339 

only the express declaration of Christ himself: No 
man cometh to me, unless the Father leadeth him. 
Whatever more is desirable — I speak now with refe- 
rence to Christians generally, and not to professed 
students of theology — may, in my judgment, be far 
more safely and profitably taught, without controversy 
or the supposition of infidel antagonists, in the form 
of Ecclesiastical history. 

The last fruit of the Mechanico-corpuscular philo- 
sophy, say rather of the mode and direction of feeling 
and thinking produced by it on the educated class of 
society; or that result, which as more immediately 
connected with my present theme I have reserved for 
the last — is the habit of attaching all our conceptions 
and feelings, and of applying all the words and phrases 
expressing reality to the objects of the senses : more 
accurately speaking to the images and sensations by 
which their presence is made known to us. Now I 
do not hesitate to assert, that it was one of the great 
purposes of Christianity, and included in the process 
of our redemption, to rouse and emancipate the soul 
from this debasing slavery to the outward senses, to 
awaken the mind to the true criteria of reality, 
namely, permanence, power, will manifested in act, 
and truth operating as life. My words, said Christ, 
are spirit : and they (that is, the spiritual powers 
expressed by them) are truth ; that is* very being. 
For this end our Lord, who came from heaven to 
take captivity captive, chose the words and names 
that designate the familiar yet most important objects 
of sense, the nearest and most concerning things and 
incidents of corporeal nature : water, flesh, blood, 
birth, bread ! But he used them in senses, that 
could not without absurdity be supposed to respect 
the mere phenomena, water, flesh, and the like ; in 
senses that by no possibility could apply to the colour, 



340 ATDS TO REFLECTION. 

figure, specific mode of touch or taste produced on 
ourselves, and by which we are made aware of the 
presence of the things and understand them — res, 
qua sub apparitionibus istis statuendce sunt. And 
this awful recalling of the drowsed soul from the 
dreams and phantom world of sensuality to actual 
reality, — how has it been evaded ! These words, 
that were spirit, — these mysteries, which even the 
Apostles must wait for the Paraclete in order to com- 
prehend — these spiritual things which can only be 
spiritually discerned, — were mere metaphors, figures 
of speech, oriental hyperboles ! " All this means 
only morality ! " Ah ! how far nearer to the truth 
would these men have been, had they said that 
morality means all this ! 

The effect, however, has been most injurious to 
the best interests of our Universities, to our incom- 
parably constituted Church, and even to our national 
character. The few who have read my two Lay 
Sermons are no strangers to my opinions on this 
head ; and in my treatise on the Church and 
Churches, I shall, if Providence vouchsafe, submit 
them to the Public, with their grounds and historic 
evidences in a more systematic form. 

I have, I am aware, in this present Work furnished 
occasion for a charge of having expressed myself 
with slight and irreverence of celebrated names, 
especially of the late Dr. Paley. O, if I were fond 
and ambitious of literary honour, of public applause, 
how well content should I be to excite but one third 
of the admiration which, in my inmost being, I feel 
for the head and heart of Paley ! And how gladly 
would I surrender all hope of contemporary praise, 
could I even approach to toe incomparable grace, 
propriety, and persuasive facility of his writings ! 
But on this very account I believe myself bound in 



CONCLUSION. . 341 

conscience to throw the whole force of my intellect 
in the way of this triumphal car, on which the tute- 
lary genius of modern idolatry is borne, even at the 
risk of being crushed under the wheels. I have at 
this moment before my eyes the eighteenth of his 
Posthumous Discourses : the amount of which is 
briefly this, — that all the words and passages in the 
Xew Testament which express and contain the pecu- 
liar doctrines of Christianity, the paramount objects 
of the Christian Revelation, all those which speak 
so strongly of the value, benefit, and efficacy of the 
death of Christ, assuredly mean something ; but 
what they mean, nobody, it seems, can tell ! But 
doubtless we shall discover it, and be convinced that 
there is a substantial sense belonging to these words, 
in a future state ! Is there an enigma or an absur- 
dity in the Koran or the Vedas, which might not be 
defended on the same pretence. A similar impres- 
sion, I confess, was left on my mind by Dr. Magee's 
statement or exposition (ad normam Grotianam) of 
the doctrine of Redemption; and deeply did it dis- 
appoint the high expectations, sadly did it chill the 
fervid sympathy, which his introductory chapter, his 
manly and masterly disquisition on the sacrificial rites 
of Paganism, had raised in my mind. 

And yet I cannot read the pages of Paley here 
referred to aloud, without the liveliest sense, how 
plausible and popular they will sound to the great 
majority of readers. Thousands of sober, and in 
their way pious, Christians will echo the words, 
together with Magee's kindred interpretation of the 
death of Christ, and adopt the doctrine for their 
make-faith ; and why ? It is feeble. And whatever 
is feeble is always plausible : for it favours mental 
indolence. It is feeble . and feebleness, in the dis- 
guise of confessing and condescending strength, is 



842 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

always popular. It flatters the reader by removing 
the apprehended distance between him and the 
superior author; and it flatters him still more by 
enabling him to transfer to himself, and to appro- 
priate, this superiority ; and thus to make his very 
weakness the mark and evidence of his strength. 
Ay, quoth the rational Christian — or with a sighing, 
self-soothing sound between an Ay and an Ah ! — I 
am content to think with the great Dr. Paley, and 
the learned Archbishop of Dublin — 

Man of sense ! Dr. Paley was a great man, and 
Dr. Magee is a learned and exemplary prelate ; but 
You do not think at all ! 

With regard to the convictions avowed and en- 
forced in my own Work, I will continue my address 
to the man of sense in the words of an old philoso- 
pher : — Tu vero crassis auribus et obstinato corde 
respuis quce forsitan vere perhibeantur. Minus her- 
cule calles p>ravissimis opinionibus ea putari men- 
dacia, quce vel audita nova, vel visa rudia, vel certe 
supra captum cogitationis (extemporanea turn) ardua 
videantur : quce si paido accuratius exploraris, non 
modo compertu evidentia, sed etiam facta facilia, 
senties* 

In compliance with the suggestion of a friend, the 
celebrated conclusion of the fourth book of Paley's 
Moral and Political Philosophy, referred to in p. 283, 
of this Volume, is here transplanted for the conve- 
nience of the Reader : — 

" Had Jesus Christ delivered no other declaration 
than the following — The hour is coming, in the which 
all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and 
shall come forth: they that have done good, unto 

* Apul. Metam. I. — Ed. 



CONCLUSION. 843 

the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, 
unto the resurrection of damnation; — he had pro- 
nounced a message of inestimable importance, and 
well worthy of that splendid apparatus of prophecy 
and miracles with which his mission was introduced 
and attested : a message in which the wisest of man- 
kind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, 
and rest to their inquiries. It is idle to say, that a 
future state had been discovered already: — it had 
been discovered as the Copernican system was ; — it 
was one guess among many. He alone discovers, 
who proves ; and no man can prove this point, but the 
teacher who testifies by miracles that his doctrine 
comes from God." 

Psedianus says of Virgil, — Usque adeo expers in- 
vidice ut siquid erudite dictum inspiceret alterius, 
non minus gauderet ac si suum esset. My own heart 
assures me that this is less than the truth : that 
Virgil would have read a beautiful passage in the 
work of another with a higher and purer delight than 
in a work of his own, because free from the appre- 
hension of his judgment being warped by self-love, 
and without that repressive modesty akin to shame, 
which in a delicate mind holds in check a man's own 
secret thoughts and feelings, when they respect him- 
self. The cordial admiration with which I peruse 
the preceding passage as a master-piece of compo- 
sition would, could I convey it, serve as a measure 
of the vital importance I attach to the convictions 
which impelled me to animadvert on the same passage 
as doctrine. 



APPENDIX. 



A. 
Summary of the Scheme of the Argument to prove the 
diversity in kind of the Reason and the Under- 
standing. See p. 167. 

The position to be proved is the difference in kind of 
the understanding from the reason. 

The axiom, on which the proof rests, is : subjects, 
which require essentially different general definitions, 
differ in kind and not merely in degree. For difference 
in degree forms the ground of specific definitions, but 
not of generic or general. 

Now reason is considered either in relation to the 
will and moral being, when it is termed the practical* 
reason = A: or relatively to the intellective and 
sciential faculties, when it is termed theoretic or 
speculative reason = a. In order, therefore, to be 
compared with the reason, the understanding must in 
like manner be distinguished into the understanding 

* The Practical Reason alone is Reason in the full and 
substantive sense. It is Reason in its own sphere of perfect 
freedom ; as the source of ideas, which ideas, in their con- 
version to the responsible Will, become ultimate ends. On 
the other hand, Theoretic Reason, as the ground of the 
universal and absolute in all logical conclusion, is rather the 
light of Reason in the Understanding, and known to be such 
by its contrast with the contingency and particularity 
which characterise all the proper and indigenous growths 
of the Understanding. 



APPENDIX. 345 

as a principle of action, in which relation I call it 
the adaptive power, or the faculty of selecting and 
adapting means and medial of proximate ends = B : 
and the understanding, as a mode and faculty of 
thought, when it is called reflection = b. Accord- 
ingly, I give the general definitions of these four : 
that is, I describe each severally by its essential 
characters : and I find, that the definition of A differs 
toto genere from that of B, and the definition of a from 
that of b. 

Now subjects that require essentially different defi- 
nitions do themselves differ in kind. But Understanding 
and Beason require essentially different definitions. 
Therefore Understanding and Beason differ in kind. 



B. 

What is Instinct ? * As I am not quite of Bonnet's 
opinion, " that philosophers will in vain torment them- 
selves to define instinct until they have spent some 
time in the head of the animal without actually being 
that animal," I shall endeavour to explain the use of 
the term. I shall not think it necessary to controvert 
the opinions which have been offered on this subject, 
whether the ancient doctrine ofDes Cartes, who sup- 
posed that animals were mere machines ; or the modern 
one of Lamark, who attributes instincts to habits 
impressed upon the organs of animals, by the constant 
efflux of the nervous fluid to these organs to whicli it 
has been determined in their efforts to perform certain 
actions, to which their necessities have given birth. 
And it will be here premature to offer any refutation 
of the opinions of those who contend for the identity 
of this faculty with reason, and maintain that all the 

* Green's Vital Dynamics, Appendix F. p. 88. See ante 
p. 191.— JE& 



846 APPENDIX. 

actions of animals are the result of invention and 
experience ; — an opinion maintained with considerable 
plausibility by Dr. Darwin. 

"Perhaps the most ready and certain mode ot 
coming to a conclusion in this intricate inquiry will 
be by the apparently circuitous route of determining 
first, what we do not mean by the word. Now we 
certainly do not mean, in the use of the term, any act 
of the vital power in the production or maintenance of 
an organ : nobody thinks of saying that the' teeth grow 
by instinct, or that when the muscles are increased in 
vigour and size in consequence of exercise, it is from 
such a cause or principle. Neither do we attribute 
instinct to the direct functions of the organs in pro- 
viding for the continuance and sustentation of the 
whole co-organised body. No one talks of the liver 
secreting bile, or of the heart acting for the propulsion 
of the blood, by instinct. Some, indeed, have main- 
tained that breathing, even voiding the excrement and 
urine, are instinctive operations ; but surely these, as 
well as the former, are automatic, or at least are the 
necessary result of the organisation of the parts in and 
by which the actions are produced. These instances 
seem to be, if I may so say, below instinct. But 
again, w^e do not attribute instinct to any actions 
preceded by a will conscious of its whole purpose, 
calculating its effects, and predetermining its conse- 
quences, nor to any exercise of the intellectual 
powers, of which the whole scope, aim, and end are 
intellectual. In other terms, no man who values his 
words will talk of the instinct of a Howard, or of 
the instinctive operations of a Newton or Leibnitz, 
in those sublime efforts, which ennoble and cast a 
lustre, not less on the individuals than on the whole 
numan race. 

" To what kind or mode of action shall we then look 
for the legitimate application of the term 1 In answer 



APPENDIX. 347 

to this query, we may, I think, without fear of the 
consequences, put the following cases as exemplifying 
and justifying the use of the term, Instinct, in an 
appropriate sense. First, when there appears an action, 
not included either in the mere functions of life, 
acting within the sphere of its own organismus ; nor 
yet an action attributable to the intelligent will or 
reason : yet, at the same time, not referable to any 
particular organ, we then declare the presence of an 
Instinct. We might illustrate this in the instance of 
a bull-calf butting before he has horns, in which the 
action can have no reference to its internal economy, 
to the presence of a particular organ, or to an intelli- 
gent will. Secondly, likewise if it be not indeed 
included in the first, we attribute Instinct where the 
organ is present, if only the act is equally anterior to 
all possible experience on the part of the individual 
agent, as, for instance, when the beaver employs its 
tail for the construction of its dwelling ; the tailor-bird 
its bill for the formation of its pensile habitation ; the 
spider its spinning organ for fabricating its artfully 
woven nets, or the viper its poison fang for its defence. 
And lastly, generally, where there is an act of the 
whole body as one animal, not referable to a will con- 
scious of its purpose, nor to its mechanism, nor to a 
habit derived from experience, nor previous frequent 
use. Here with most satisfaction, and without doubt 
of the propriety of the word, we declare an Instinct ; 
as examples of which, we may adduce the migratory 
habits of birds, the social instincts of the bees, the 
construction of their habitations, composed of cells 
formed with geometrical precision, adapted in capacity 
to different orders of the society, and forming store- 
houses for containing a supply of provisions ; not to 
mention similar instances in wasps, ants, termites : 
and the endless contrivances for protecting the future 
progeny. 



&48 APPENDIX. 

" But if it be admitted that we have rightly stated 
the application of the term, what we may ask is con- 
tained in the examples adduced, or what inferences 
are we to make as to the nature of Instinct itself, as 
a source and principle of action 1 We shall, perhaps, 
best aid ourselves in the inquiry by an example, and 
let us take a very familiar one of a caterpillar taking 
its food. The caterpillar seeks at once the plant, 
which furnishes the appropriate aliment, and this even 
as soon as it creeps from the ovum ; and the food 
being taken into the stomach, the nutritious part is 
separated from the innutritious, and is disposed of for 
the support of the animal. The question then is, 
what is contained in this instance of instinct ? In the 
first place, what does the vital power in the stomach 
do, if we generalise the account of the process, or 
express it in its most general terms ? Manifestly it 
selects and applies appropriate means to an immediate 
end, prescribed by the constitution ; first of the parti- 
cular organ, and then of the whole body or organismus. 
This we have admitted is not instinct. But what does 
the caterpillar do ? Does it not also select and apply 
appropriate means to an immediate end prescribed by 
its particular organisation and constitution 1 But there 
is something more ; it does this according to circum- 
stances ; and this we call Instinct. But may there 
not be still something more involved 1 What shall we 
say of Huber's humble-bees ? A dozen of these were 
put under a bell glass along with a comb of about ten 
silken cocoons, so unequal in height as not to be 
capable of standing steadily ; to remedy this, two or 
three of the humble-bees got upon the comb, stretched 
themselves over its edge, and with their heads down- 
wards, fixed their forefeet on the table on which the 
comb stood, and so with their hindfeet kept the comb 
from falling : when these were weary others took their 
places. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh 



APPENDIX. 049 

bees relieving their comrades at intervals, and each 
working in its turn, did these affectionate little insects 
support the comb for nearly three days ; at the end 
of which time they had prepared sufficient wax to 
build pillars with it. And what is still further 
curious, the first pillars having got displaced, the 
bees had again recourse to the same manoeuvre. 
What then is involved in this case ? Evidently the 
same selection and appropriation of means to an 
immediate end as before ; but observe ! according to 
varying circumstances. 

" And here we are puzzled ; for this becomes 
Understanding. At least no naturalist, however 
predetermined to contrast and oppose Instinct to 
Understanding, but ends at last in facts in which he 
himself can make out no difference. But are we hence 
to conclude that the instinct is the same, and identical 
with the human understanding ? Certainly not ; though 
the difference is not in the essential of the definition, 
but in an addition to, or modification of, that which is 
essentially the same in both. In such cases, namely, 
as that which we have last adduced, in which instinct 
assumes the semblance of understanding, the act indi- 
cative of instinct is not clearly prescribed by the 
constitution or laws of the animal's peculiar organisa- 
tion, but arises out of the constitution and previous 
circumstances of the animal, and those habits, wants, 
and that predetermined sphere of action and operation 
which belong to the race, and beyond the limits of 
which it does not pass. If this be the case, I may 
venture to assert that I have determined an appro- 
priate sense for instinct : namely, that it is a power of 
selecting and applying appropriate means to an imme- 
diate end, according to circumstances and the changes 
of circumstances, these being variable and varying; 
but yet so as to be referable to the general habits, 
arising out of the constitution and previous circum- 



350 APPENDIX. 

stances of the animal considered not as an individual, 
but as a race. 

" We may here, perhaps, most fitly explain the error 
of those who contend for the identity of Eeason ana 
Instinct, and believe that the actions of animals are 
the result of invention and experience. They have, 
no doubt, been deceived, in their investigation of In- 
stinct, by an efficient cause simulating a final cause ; 
and the defect in their reasoning has arisen in conse- 
quence of observing in the instinctive operations of 
animals the adaptation of means to a relative end, 
from the assumption of a deliberate purpose. To this 
freedom or choice in action and purpose, instinct, in 
any appropriate sense of the word, cannot apply, and 
to justify and explain its introduction, we must have 
recourse to other and higher faculties than any mani- 
fested in the operations of instinct. It is evident, 
namely, in turning our attention to the distinguishing 
character of human actions, that there is, as in the 
inferior animals, a selection and appropriation of means 
to ends — but it is (not only according to circumstances, 
not only according to varying circumstances, but it is) 
according to varying purposes. But this is an attri- 
bute of the intelligent will, and no longer even mere 
understanding. 

" And here let me observe that the difficulty and 
delicacy of this investigation are greatly increased by 
our not considering the understanding (even our own) 
in itself, and as it would be were it not accompanied 
with and modified by the co-operation of the will, the 
moral feeling, and that faculty, perhaps best distin- 
guished by the name of Eeason, of determining that 
which is universal and necessary, of fixing laws and 
principles whether speculative or practical, and of con- 
templating a final purpose or end. This intelligent will, 
— having a self-conscious purpose, under the guidance 
and light of the reason, by which its acts are made 



APPENDIX. 351 

to bear as a whole upon some end in and for itself, 
and to which the understanding is subservient as an 
organ or the faculty of selecting and appropriating 
the means — seems best to account for that progres- 
siveness of the human race, which so evidently 
marks an insurmountable distinction and impassable 
barrier between man and the inferior animals ; but 
which would be inexplicable, were there no other 
difference than in the degree of their intellectual 
faculties. 

"Man doubtless has his instincts, even in common 
with the inferior animals, and many of these are the 
germs of some of the best feelings of his nature. 
What, amongst many, might I present as a better 
illustration, or more beautiful instance, than the storge, 
or maternal instinct 1 But man's instincts are elevated 
and ennobled by the moral ends and purposes of his 
being. He is not destined to be the slave of blind 
impulses, a vessel purposeless, unmeant. He is con- 
stituted by his moral and intelligent will, to be the 
first freed being, the master-work and the end of 
nature ; but this freedom and high office can only 
co-exist with fealty and devotion to the service of 
truth and virtue. And though we may even be per- 
mitted to use the term instinct, in order to designate 
those high impulses which in the minority of man's 
rational being, shape his acts unconsciously to ultimate 
ends, and which in constituting the very character and 
impress of the humanity reveal the guidance of Provi- 
dence ; yet the convenience of the phrase, and the want 
of any other distinctive appellation for an influence de 
supra, working unconsciously in and on the whole 
human race, should not induce us to forget that the 
term instinct Jj 03uy strictly applicable to the adaptive 
power, as the faulty, even in its highest proper form, 
of selecting and adapting appropriate means to proxi- 
mate ends according to varying circumstances, — a 



352 



APPENDIX. 



faculty which, however, only differs from human 
understanding in consequence of the latter being 
enlightened by reason, and that the principles which 
actuate man as ultimate ends, and are designed foi 
his conscious possession and guidance, are best and 
most properly named Ideas." 



BRADBURY, AGNEW, <fe CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFK.IARS. 



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The MOST IMPOR TANT BOOK on THRIFT YET PUBLISHED. 
Just ready, medium Svo, cloth gilt, price 6s. 

WARD & LOCK'S THRIFT BOOK 

A CYCLOPEDIA OF 

COTTAGE MANAGEMENT AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 
The Subjects treated of include : Choice of a Home — Furnishing 
— Cookery and Housekeeping— Domestic Hygiene — Dress and 
Clothing — Children — Household Pets and Amusements, &c, &c. 
From THE SATURDAY REVIEW: 
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COOKERY AND HOUSEKEEPING BOOKS. 



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MRS. BEETON'S EVERY-DAY COOKERY AND HOUSE- 
KEEPING BOOK. Instructions for Mistresses and Servants, and 
over 1,650 Practical Recipes. With Engravings and 142 Coloured 
figures. Cloth gilt, price 3s. Gd. 

MRS. BEETON'S ALL ABOUT COOKERY. A Collection 

cf Practical Recipes, arranged in Alphabetical Order, and fully Illus- 
trated. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, price 2s. Gd, 

THE COOKERY INSTRUCTOR. By Edith A. Barnett, 

Examiner to the National Training School for Cookery, &c. Illus- 
trated. The reasons for Recipes, which are almost entirely omitted in 
all Modern Cookery Books, are here clearly given. Crown 8vo, cloth 
gilt, 2s. Gd. " A most useful little book."— Queen. 

GOOD PLAIN COOKERY. By Mary Hooper, Author of 

" Little Dinners," "Every Day Meals,'' &c. This entirely New Work, 
by an acknowledged Mistress of the Cuisine, is specially devoted to 
what is generally known as Plain Cookery. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 
2s. Gd. 

MRS. BEETON'S ENGLISHWOMAN'S COOKERY BOOK. 

An entirely New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Containing upwards 
of 6J0 Recipes, 100 Engravings, and Four Coloured Plates ; Direc- 
tions for Marketing, Diagrams of Joints, Instructions for Carving, 
Folding Table Napkins, &c., and Quantities, Times, Costs and Seasons. 
Post 8vo, cloth, price Is. ; cloth gilt, price Is. Gd. ; on thick paper, 2s. 

THE PEOPLE'S HOUSEKEEPER. A Complete Guide to 

Comfort, Economy, and Health. Comprising Cookery, Household 
Economy, the Family Health, Furnishing, Housework, Clothes, Mar- 
keting, Food, &c, &c. Post 8vo, cloth, price Is. 

THE ECONOMICAL COOKERY BOOK, for Housewives, 

Cooks, and Maids-of-all-Work ; with Advice to Mistress and Servant. 
By Mrs. Warren. New Edition, with additional pages and numerous 
Illustrations. Post 8vo, cloth, price Is. 

THE SIXPENNY PRACTICAL COOKERY AND ECONOM- 
ICAL RECIPES. Comprising Marketing, Relishes, foiled Dishes, 
Vegetables, Soups, Side Dishes, Salads, btews, Fish, Joints, Sauces, 
Cheap Dishes, Invalid Cookery, &c. Price Gd. 

THE COTTAGE COOKERY BOOK. Containing Simple 

Lessons in Cookery and Economical Home Management. An Easy 
and Complete Guide to Economy in t^e Kitchen, and a most valuable 
Handbook fjr Young Housewives. Price Gd, 

BEETON'S PENNY COOKERY BOOK. New Edition, with , 

New Recipes throughout. 400th Thousand. Containing more than 
Two Hundred Recipes and Instructions. Price Id. ; post free, i\d. 

WARD and LOCK'S PENNY HOUSEKEEPER and GUIDE 

TO COOKERY. Plain and Reliable Instructions in Cleaning and 
all Domestic Duties. Price Id.; post free, x\d. 

BEETON'S PENNY DOMESTIC RECIPE BOOK: Con- 

taining Simple and Practical Information upon things in general use 
and necessary for every Household. Price Id.; post free, x\d. 



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u The most Universal Booh of lieference in a moderate 
compass that tve know of in the English Language." — Times. 

HAYDN^S DICTIONARY OF DATES. Relating to all 
Ages and Nations ; for Universal Reference. Containing about 10,000 
distinct Articles, and 9u,0C0 Dates and Facts. Seventeenth 
Euition, Enlarged, Corrected and Revised by Benjamin Vincent, 
Librarian of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In One thick 
Vol., medium 8vo, cloth, price 18s. : half-calf, 24s. : full or tree- 
calf, Sis. 6d. 

"It is certainly no longer now a mere Dictionary of Dates, but a 
Comprehensive Dictionary or Encyclopaedia of general in- 
formation." — The Times on the 17th Edition. 

"It is by far the readiest and most reliable Worh of the 
hind."— The, Standard. 



THE CHEAPEST ENCYCLOPAEDIA EVER PUBLISHED. 
Complete in Four Vols., royal 8vo, half-roan, price 42s. ; half-calf, 63s. 
BEETON'S ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF UNI- 
VERSAL INFORMATION. Comprising Geography, History, 
Biography, Art, Science, and Literature, and containing 4,000 
Pages, 50,000 Articles, and 2,000 Engravings and Coloured Maps. 
Entirely New Edition, re-written throughout. By G. R. Emerson. 
Of all Works of Reference published 0/ late years, not one has gained 
such general approbation as Beeton's Illustrated Encyclopaedia^ It 
is undo2ibtedly one of the Most Comprehensive Works i?i existence, and is 
the Cheapest Encyclopaedia in the World. This N?w Edition has 
been re-written -throughout , a?id brought down to the latest date. 

*' We hnoiv of no booh which in such small compass gives 89 
much information."— The Scotsman. 

<( A perfect mine of information."— Leeds Mercury. 



VINCENT'S DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY, Past and 

Present. Containing the Chief Events in the Lives of Eminent Persons 
of all Ages and Nations. By Benjamin Vincent, Librarian of the Royal 
Institution of Great Britain, and Editor of "Haydn's Dictionary of 
Dates." In One thick Vol., medium 8vo, cloth, 7s. Od. ; half-calf, 12s. ; 
full or tree-calf, ISs. 

" It has the merit of condensing into the smallest possible compass the 
leading events in the career of every man and woman of 
eminence, . . . It is very carefully edited, and must evidently be 
the result of constant industry, combined with good judgment and taste." — 
The Times. 

HAYDN'S DOMESTIC MEDICINE. By the late Edwin 

Lankester, M.D., F.R.S., assisted by Distinguished Physicians and 
Surgeons. New Edition, including an Appendix on Sick Nursing and 
Mothers' Management. With 32 full pages of Engravings. In One 
Vol., medium 8vo, cloth gilt, 7s. Od. ; half-calf, 12s. 
u The fullest and most reliable worh oj its hind." — Liver- 
pool Albion. 

HAYDN'S BIBLE DICTIONARY. For the use of all Readers 

and Students of the Old and New Testaments, and of the Apocrypha. 
Edited by the late Rev. Charles Boutell, M.A. New Edition, 
brought down to the latest date. With 100 pages of Engravings, 
separately printed on tinted paper. In One Vol., medium 8vo, cluth 
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BEETON'S DICTIONARY OF UNIVERSAL INFORMA- 
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Enlarged Edition, containing Several Thousand Additional Articles. 
By Geo. R. Emerson. With Maps. In One Handsome Volume, 
half-leather, 18s. 

" In proposing to themselves, as the chief aim of their enterprise, a 
combination of accuracy, compactness, comprehensiveness , 

and clieapness, the publishers have achieved a success which cannot 
fail to be appreciated by the public."— Glasgow Herald. 



THE MOST COMPLETE AND USEFUL BOOK 
HITHERTO PRODUCED FOR AMATEURS IN CARPENTRY 

AND THE CONSTR UCTIVE_ A R TS. 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN MECHANIC. Being a Complete 

Guide to all Operations in Building, Making, and Mending that can be 
done by Amateurs in the House, Garden, Farm, &c, including House- 
hold Carpentry and Joinery, Ornamental and Constructional 
Carpentry and Joinery, and Household Building, Art and 
Practice. With about 750 Illustrations of Tools, Processes, Buila- 
ngs, &Cv- Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, price 7s. 6d. ; half- calf, 12s. 

" There is a fund of solid information of every kind in the work before 
us, which entitles it to the proud distinction of being a complete ' vade- 
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Telegraph. -' 

ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL BOOKS EVER ISSUED. 
AMATEUR WORK, Illustrated. A Work for Self-Helpers. 
Edited by the Author of '* Every Man His Own Mechanic." With 
Folding Lithograpttio Supplements, containing Designs, Sketches, 
and Working Drawings, and 500 Wood Engraving3 in the Text. 
Crown 4to, cloth gilt, price 7s. 6d. 

Amo7ig the subjects treated of by "Amateur Work, Illustrated" 
vuillbe found: — Lathe Making— Electro Plating— Modelling— Organ 
Building — Clock Making— Photography — Boat Building — Book- 
binding — Gas Fitting — Tools and Furniture— Veneering— French 
Polishing — Wood Carving— Plaster Casting — Fret Work — Decora- 
tion, &c, &c. ■ 

HOUSEHOLD MEDICINE: A Guide to Good Health, Long 

Life, and the Proper Treatment of all Diseases and Ailments. Edited 
by George Black, M.B. Edin. Fully and. accurately Illustrated 
With 450 Engravings. Royal 8vo, cloth gilt, price 7s. 6d. 

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EVERYBODY'S LAWYER (Beeton's Law Book). Eirirely 

New Edition, Revised by a Barrister. A Practical Compendium 
of the General Principles of English Jurisprudence : comprising up- 
wards of 14,600 Statements of the Law. With a full Index, 27,000 
References, every numbered paragraph in its particular place, and 
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Not only for every no?i-prq/essional man in a difficulty are its contents 
valuable, but also for the ordinary reader t to wJtom a knowledge of the 
law is more important and interesting than is generally supposed. 

BEETON'S DICTIONARY OF GEOGRAPHY: A Universal 

Gazetteer. Illustrated by Maps— Ancient, Modern, and Biblical, and 
several Hundred Engravings. Containing upwards of 12,000 distinct 
and complete Articles. Post8vo, cloth gilt, 7s, Gd. ; half-calf, 10s, Gd, 

BEETON'S DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY: Being the 

Lives of Eminent Persons of All Times. Containing upwards of 10,000 
Articles, profusely Illustrated by Portraits. With the Pronunciation 
of every Name. Post 8vo, cloth gilt, 7*. Gd. ; half-calf, 10s, Gd, 

BEETON'S DICTIONARY OF NATURAL-HISTORY: A 

Popular and Scientific Account of Animated Creation. Containing 
upwards of 2,000 Articles, and 400 Engravings. With the Pronuncia- 
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BEETON'S BOOK OF HOME PETS: How to Rear and 

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upwards of 200 Woodcuts from designs principally by Harrison 
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THE TREASURY OF SCIENCE, Natural and Physical. 

Comprising Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, 
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Ph.D. Translated and Edited by Henry Medlock, Ph.D., &c. 
With more than 500 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 7*. 6d. 

A MILLION OF FACTS of Correct Data and Ele- 
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on all subjects of Speculation and Practice. By Sir Richard Phillijs. 
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THE TEACHER'S PICTORIAL BIBLE AND BIBLE DIC- 
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THE SELF-AID CYCLOPAEDIA, for Self-Taught Stu- 
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and Mechanism ; the Steam Engine. By Robert Scott Burn, 
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BROOKES' (R.) GENERAL GAZETTEER, OR GEO- 
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BROWN'S (Rev. J.) DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE. 

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GURNEY'S (Rev. W.) DICTIONARY OF THE HOLY 

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inexhaustible field it opens up for observation and experiment commends its in* 
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BEETON'S BOOK OF GARDEN MANAGEMENT. Em- 
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Kitchen Garden Cultivation, Orchid Houses, &c, &c. Illustrated with 
Coloured Plates and numerous Engravings. Post 8vo, cloth gilt, 
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The directions in Beeton's Garden Management are conceived in 
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none can fail to understand them. The Coloured Plates show more than a 
hundred different kinds of Plants and Flowers t and assist in the identi- 
fication oj a7iy doubtful specimen. 

MAWE'S EVERY MAN HIS OWN GARDENER. With 

Additions by George Glenny. i2mo, cloth gilt, price 5s» 

BEETON'S DICTIONARY OF EVERY-DAY GARDENING. 

Constituting a Popular Cyclopaedia of the Theory and Practice of 
Horticulture. Illustrated with Coloured Plates, made after Original 
Water Colour Drawings, and Woodcuts in the Text. Crown 8vo, cloth 
gilt, price 3s. Gd. 

ALL ABOUT GARDENING. Being a Popular Dictionary of 

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Branches of Horticultural Science. Specially adapted to the capabilities 
and requirements of the Kitchen and Flower Garden at the Present 
Day. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, price 2s. 6d. 



BEETON'S GARDENING BOOK. Containing full and prac- 
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Garden, the Fruit Garden, the Kitchen Garden, Pests of the Garden, 
with a Monthly Calendar of Work to be done in the Garden throughout 
the Year. With Illustrations. Post 8vo, cloth, price Is. / or cloth 
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KITCHEN AND FLOWER GARDENING FOR PLEASURE 

AND PROFIT. An Entirely New and Practical Guide to the Culti- 
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Engravings. Crown 8vo, boards, Is, 

GLENNY'S ILLUSTRATED GARDEN ALMANAC AND 

FLORISTS' DIRECTORY. With numerous Illustrations. Pub- 
lished Yearly, in coloured wrapper. Demy 8vo, price Is. 

BEETON'S PENNY GARDENING BOOK. Being a Calendar 

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with Plain Directions for Growing all Useful Vegetables and most 
Flowers suited to adorn the Gardens and Homes of Cottagers. Price 
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DICTIONARIES OP LANGUAGE, 

WARD AND LOCK'S STANDARD ETYMOLOGICAL 

DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. With 40 
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AN ETYMOLOGICAL 8c PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY 

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WEBSTER'S UNIVERSAL PRONOUNCING AND DE- 
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WALKER AND WEBSTER'S ENGLISH DICTIONARY. 

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NEW FRENCH-ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-FRENCH PRO- 
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WARD AND LOCKS POCKET SHILLING DICTIONARY 

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WEBSTER'S PENNY PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY 

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i Beeton's Every-Day Cookery and Housekeeping 

Book. 1,650 Practical Recipes and 142 Coloured Figures. 

2 Beeton's Every-Day Gardening. Coloured Plates. 

3 The Manners of Polite Society; or, Etiquette for All. 

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BEETON'S ALL ABOUT IT BOOKS. 

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1 All About Cookery. A Dictionary of Practical Recipes. 

2 All About Everything. A Domestic "Encyclopaedia, 

3 All About Gardening. With numerous Illustrations. 

5 The Dictionary of Every-Day Difficulties in Reading, 

Writing, and Spelling. Also in cloth plain, price 2s. 

6 All About Book-keeping, Single and Double Entry. 

7 AH About Etiquette. For Ladies, Gentlemen, and Families. 

8 The Mother's Home Book. Practical Instructions for 

the Preservation of her Own and her Infant's Health. Illustrated. 

9 Webster's Dictionary of Quotations. With full Index. 

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USEP UL HANDB O O K S. 

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1 The Cookery Instructor. By Edith A. Barnett, 

Examiner to the National Training School of Cookery, &c 

2 The Law of Domestic Economy. Including the Li- 

censing Laws and the Adulteration of Food. With copious Index. 

3 Profitable and Economical Poultry-Keeping. By 

Mrs. Eliot James, Author of " Indian Household Management." 

4 The Manners of the Aristocracy. By Oneof Them- 

selves. 

5 Ward and Lock's Letter Writer's Handbook. 

6 Common-Sense Clothing. By Edith A. Barnett, 

Lecturer to the National Health Society. Illustrated. 

7 Plain and Fancy Needlework (Handbook of). Illus- 

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8 Good Plain Cookery. By Mary Hooper, Author of 

" Little Dinners," " Every-Day Meals," &c. 

9 Our Servants: Their Duties to Us and Ours to Them. 

Including the Boarding-out Question. By Mrs. Eliot James. 

10 Familiar Talks on Food and Drink. By Dr. Robert 

James Mann. Illustrated. 

11 The Bible Student's Handbook: An Introduction to 

the Holy Bible. Including a Synopsis of the Life of Christ. 

12 The Lady's Guide to Home Dressmaking and 

Millinery. With Illustrations. 



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BEETON'S BOOK OF NEEDLEWORK. Consisting of 670 

Needlework Patterns, with full Descriptions and Instructions as to 
working them. Every Stitch Described and Engraved with the 
utmost accuracy, and the Quantity of Material requisite for each 
Pattern stated. 

Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt edges, price 7s, 6cl, 
Contents'. 



Tatting Patterns. 
Embroidery Patterns. 
Crochet Patterns. 
Knitting & Netting Patterns. 
Monogram & Initial Patterns. 
Berlin Wool Instructions. 
Embroidery Instructions. 



Crochet Instructions. 

Knitting and Netting Instruc- 
tions. 

Lace Stitches. 

Point Lace and Guipure Pat- 
terns. 

Crewel Work. 



V* Just as The Book of Household Management takes due pre- 
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Needlework Designs has become the book, par excellence, for Ladies to 
consult, both for Instruction in Stitches and all kinds of Work t and 
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1 Tatting Patterns. With 66 Illustrations. 

2 Embroidery Patterns. With 85 Illustrations, 

3 Crochet Patterns. With 48 Illustrations. 

4 Knitting and Netting Patterns. With 64 Illustrations. 

5 Patterns of Monograms, Initials, &c. With 151 Illusts. 

6 Guipure Patterns. With 71 Illustrations. 

7 Point Lace Bo|k. With 78 Illustrations. 

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1 Berlin Wool Instructions. With 18 Illustrations, 

2 Embroidery Instructions. With 65 Illustrations, 

3 Crochet Instructions. With 24 Illustrations. 



HOME NEEDLEWORK. With 80 Diagrams. Price is. 

ART NEEDLEWORK. Illustrated. Price is. 

THE FANCY NEEDLEWORK INSTRUCTION BOOK. 

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SYLVIA'S HANDBOOK OF PLAIN AND FANCY NEEDLE- 
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i The Chiid's Illustrated Fancy Work and Doll Book. 

Containing Suggestions and Instructions upon the Making of Dolls, 
Furniture, Dresses, and Miscellaneous Articles, suitable for Presents. 
Illustrated. 

2 Sylvia's Lady's Illustrated Lace Book. A Collection 

of New Designs in Point Lace, Renaissance Work, Guipure, and 
Punto Tirato. Illustrated. 

3 Sylvia's Book of Ornamental Needlework, Contain- 

ing Illustrations of various New Designs, with full Instructions for 
working. 

4 Sylvia's Illustrated Macrame Lace Book. Contain- 

ing Illustrations of many New and Original Designs, with complete 
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ART NEEDLEWORK. A Complete Manual of Embroidery 

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THE LADY'S HANDBOOK OF FANCY NEEDLEWORK. 

Containing several hundred New Designs in Ornamental Needlework, 
Lace of various kinds, &c. With full Instructions as to working. Crown 
8vo, cloth gilt, gilt edges, price 5s. 



Bazaar 



THE LADY'S 

and Fancy- Fair Books. 

Crown 8vo, fancy wrapper, price Is. each. 

i Sylvia's Book of Bazaars and Fancy-Fairs. How to 

Organise a Bazaar or Fancy-Fair, and arrange for Contributions of 
Work, Fitting up the Stalls, suitable Dress, Organisation of Lotteries 
and Raffles. With 75 Illustrations. 

2 Sylvia's Book of New Designs in Knitting, Netting, 

and Crochet. Arranged with special reference to Articles Saleable 
at Bazaars and Fancy- Fairs. With 107 Illustrations. 

3 Sylvia's Illustrated Embroidery Book. Arranged 

with special reference to Bazaars and Fancy-Fairs. Coloured Em- 
broidery, White Embroidery. With 139 Illustrations. 

4 Sylvia's Illustrated Book of Artistic Knicknacks, 

Articles suitable for Sale at Bazaars and Fancy-Fairs. Every variety 
of Decoration for the House and the Person, with minute Instructions 
for Making. With 36 Illustrations. 



London: 



WARD, LOCK & CO., Salisbury Square, E.C. 
New York: 10, Bond Street. 



REFERENCE BOOKS FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Price 



V- 



51- 
3/6 

2/6 
6 



M. 

Gd. 
6d. 
6d. 
6d. 



BEETON'S 

National Referenc e books. 

Strongly bound- in cloth, price One Shilling each. 
(Those marked thus * can be had cloth gilt , price Is. Gd.) 

*i Beeton's British Gazetteer: A Topographical and 

Historical Guide to the United Kingdom. 

2 Beeton's British Biography: From the Earliest Times 

to the Accession of George III. 

3 Beeton's Modern Men and Women : A British Bio- 

graphy, from the Accession of George III. to the Present Time. 

*4 Beeton's Bible Dictionary : A Cyclopaedia of the 

Geography, Biography, Narratives, and Truths of Scripture. 

*5 Beeton's Classical Dictionary : A Cyclopaedia of 

Greek and Roman Biography, Geography, Mythology, &c. 

*6 Beeton's Medical Dictionary: A Guide to the Symp- 
toms and Treatment of all Ailments, Illnesses, and Diseases. 

7 Beeton's Date Book: A British Chronology, from the 

Earliest Records to the Present Day. 

8 Beeton's Dictionary of Commerce. Containing Ex- 

planations of the Terms used in, and modes of transacting Business. 

9 Beeton's Modern European Celebrities. A Bio- 

graphy of Continental Men and Women of Note. 

Tegg's Readiest Wages Reckoner. Fcap. folio, cloth, 5s. 
Profit and Discount Tables. For the use of Traders in 

their Purchases, Sales, and taking Stock. Demy 8vo, "cloth, 3s. Gd. 

Beeton's Counting House Book: A Dictionary of Com- 
merce and Ready Reckoner combined. Post 8vo, cloth, price 2s. Gd. 

Showeli's Tradesmen's Calculator. New Edition, is. Gd. 
Beeton's Guide Book to the Stock Exchange and 

Money Market. Entirely New Edition, post 8vo, linen boards, Is. 

Beeton's Investing Money with Safety and Profit. 

New and Revised Edition. Post 8vo, linen covers, Is. 

Beeton's Ready Reckoner. With New Tables, and much 

Information never before collected. Post 8vo, strong cloth, Is. . 

Beeton's Complete Letter Writer, for Ladies and 

Gentlemen. Post 8vo, strong cloth, price Is. 

Webster's Shilling Book-keeping. Comprising a Course 

of Practice in Single and Double Entry. Post 8vo, cloth, Is. 

The Bible Student's Handbook. An Introduction to the 

Holy Bible. Crown 8vo, cloth, Is. 

Webster's Sixpenny Ready Reckoner. 256 pp. cl., Gd. 
Beeton's Complete Letter Writer for Ladies. Gd. 
Beeton's Complete Letter Writer for Gentlemen. Gd* 
The New Letter Writer for Lovers. Price Gd. 
Tegg's Readiest Reckoner Ever Invented. 32mo, Gd.; 

i8mo, Is. 



London: WARD, LOCK & CO., Salisbury Square, E.C. 
New York: 10, Bond Street. 






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